Negative transfer of Henan Dialectto English Pronunciation

劉麗韞

Abstract：Negative language transfer is a common phenomenon， which refers to the changes caused by the similarities between language leaners first language and their second language. Henan students have some patterns in learning English considering pronunciation， including both consonants and vowels， therefore teachers should generalize the pattern and help students to adjust accordingly.

Key words：Negative language transfer; Henan Dialect; English leaners

Second language refers to any language learned in addition to a person's first language. Some errors that second-language learners make in their speech originate in their first language. This kind of influence of the first language on the second is known as “negative language transfer”. Language transfer is a complex phenomenon resulting from interaction between learners prior linguistic knowledge， the target-language input they encounter， and their cognitive processes.

Students in China are subject to take English as their second language from the age of 11 on. From neuroscience perspective， they have passed the “sensitive period” to learn a language. Therefore the way Chinese students speak English was enormously influenced by their mother tongue， in terms of pronunciation， grammar， syntax， etc. As a university teacher in Henan province， the author has witnessed many negative language transfer delivered by students when learning and practicing English. This paper tackles with students phonological performances of negative language transfer only.

Central Plains or Zhongyuan Mandarin （simplified Chinese： 中原官話） is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central part of Shaanxi， Henan， and southern part of Shandong. This dialect is closely related to Standard Mandarin Chinese， with little variation in lexicon and very few tonal differences and it shares many features with Mandarin Chinese phonology. Considering both Chinese and English syllables consist of consonant， vowel and tone， this paper is going to examine the negative language transfer that occurs to Henan students in terms of the three elements mentioned above.

1. Consonants

There are 22 consonants in Chinese while 28 in English， while some seems very confusing to Chinese students. Based on observation and generalization during class， there are mainly three categories of wrong pronunciations by students considering consonants：

（1） [l] vs [n]. Students from the southern part of Henan province could not differentiate the sound of [l] and [n]， for example， milk in Chinese should be pronounced as [nju： nai] while students would wrongly pronounced as [lju： lai]. The most commonly wrong pronunciation in this category is the word “friendly” - students would pronounce as [frendni] and other words with the similar word- formation.

（2） [?] [θ]vs [r] [z] [s]. In Chinese consonants， there is no labiodental sound as [?] or [θ] so this pronunciation is a common problem for Chinese students all over the country， most students would use the sound [s] as a replacement of [θ] and sound [z] as a replacement of [?]. For example， think is always pronounced as [sink] in China， but in Henan province the situation is even worse， it will as well be pronounced as [?ink]. If the word “the” being pronounced as [z?] is usually seen in China， it being pronounced as [r?] would only be seen in Henan. This is because some of Henan students could not differentiate the sound of [zh] [ch] [sh] with [z] [c] [s].

（3） Unnecessary vowel added to words ending with a consonant： In Chinese， most words end with vowels while words ending with a consonant are very rare， only those ending with [n] or [?]. Chinese students are more used to pronunciation ending with vowels so they would add a vowel [?] at the end of words. For example， the word “good” would always be pronounced as [gud?]， “it” would always be pronounced as [it?].

2. Vowels

English vowels are very similar to Chinese vowels and this characteristic is like a double-edged sword. It made Chinese students felt easier to pronounce as well as easier to get confused. The most commonly seen problem is the vowel [i：]. Henan students are not used to the prolonged sound of it， they would usually mistake it as [i] or [ei]. The most commonly seen word “he” and “she”， most Henan students would pronounce as [hei] and [?i].

The negative transfer of Chinese to English is very trivial， but the very subtle changes of sound made great influences when communicating. Native English speaker may find understandable because the mistakes are very small while Chinese- English speakers， especially the sensitive ones may find the pronunciation of Henan students very “unfashionable”. Out of the mistakes mentioned above， the second one and third one are most commonly seen among Henan students. When generalized as patterns， teachers should pay more attention to and students should be aware of， thus students could adjust their pronunciation accordingly.

References

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