English Consonant Pronunciation Errors Research among Chinese K-9 Learners

Authors

  • Yanlu Xie

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Yilin Tao

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Xiaoli Feng

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Xinyue Gao

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Xiaoli He

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Ziqing Wang

    School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China
  • Liyuan Wang

    Tencent Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 100193, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i1.7663
Received: 2 November 2024 | Revised: 16 November 2024 | Accepted: 21 November 2024 | Published Online: 7 January 2025

Abstract

When native Chinese speakers learn English pronunciation, learners of different ages have different pronunciation characteristics. Previous studies on the English consonant pronunciation of Chinese children mainly focus on learners at one stage, and there is a lack of comparative studies on different ages, and research on early childhood is relatively scarce. We study English consonant pronunciation errors among Chinese learners in kindergarten through 9th Grade (K-9). We divided K-9 learners into three age groups: Kindergarten Children (KC), Primary-school Students (PS), and Middle-school students (MS). The results show: (1) The overall English consonant acquisition error ratio of the MS group is lower than that of the PS group, and the PS group is lower than that of the KC group. (2) It is easier for learners to master the phonemes that have the same pronunciation in English and Chinese, and difficult to accurately distinguish the phonemes that have similar pronunciation in English and Chinese, and difficult to master the phonemes that exist in English but do not exist in Chinese. (3) With the growth of age, learners' English consonant errors tend to be diversified and dispersed. Understanding the English consonant pronunciation errors in learners of different ages can be more targeted to correct learners' pronunciation errors. Combining the English consonant pronunciation errors with the Chinese pronunciation influence of different aged learners, we explore and summarize the characteristics and causes of K-9 learners' English consonant errors, trying to provide some references for oral English teaching.

Keywords:

L2 Acquisition; Mispronunciation Patterns; Consonant Contrast

References

[1] Jiang, Y.W., 2024. A study of English pronunciation teaching strategies in primary schools. Primary School Teaching Research. 2024(24), 67–68.

[2] Feng, L., 2023. The present situation and improvement strategies of English pronunciation teaching in primary schools under the new curriculum standard. Jilin Education. 2023(12), 88–90.

[3] Yang, Y., 2023. Phonetics teaching in primary school English teaching. Academy Education. 2023(15), 19–21.

[4] Llanes, À., 2018. Reading in English as a foreign language: Examining differences in reading speed, comprehension, efficacy and L1 cross-linguistic influence across grades. Investigaciones Sobre Lectura. 2018(9), 1–49.

[5] Wewalaarachchi, T.D., Singh, L., 2020. Vowel, consonant, and tone variation exert asymmetrical effects on spoken word recognition: Evidence from 6-year-old monolingual and bilingual learners of Mandarin. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 189(1), 104698.

[6] Han, F.F., 2013. Pronunciation Problems of Chinese Learners of English. ORTESOL Journal. 2013(30), 26–30.

[7] Deterding, D., 2006. The pronunciation of English by speakers from China. English World-Wide. 27(2), 175–198.

[8] Liang, D.X., 2015. Chinese Learners' Pronunciation Problems and Listening Difficulties in English Connected Speech. Asian Social Science. 2015(11), 98.

[9] Zhang, F.C., Yin, P.P., 2009. A Study of Pronunciation Problems of English Learners in China. Asian Social Science. 5(6), 141–146.

[10] Best, C.T., Tyler, M.D., 2007. Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities. Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. pp. 13–44.

[11] Flege, J.E., 1995. Second-language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issue in cross-language research. York Press: London, UK. pp. 229–273.

[12] Jia, G., Strange, W., Collado, J., et al., 2006. Perception and production of English vowels by Mandarin speakers: Age-related differences vary with amount of L2 exposure. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 119(2), 1118–1130.

[13] Kirkova-Naskova, A., Henderson, A., Fouz-González, J., 2021. English Pronunciation Instruction: Research-Based Insights. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. pp. 165–189.

[14] Lin, Y.H., 2001. A constraint-based approach to Chinese speakers' acquisition of English consonant clusters1. Concentric Studies in Lingus. 27(2), 1–35.

[15] Wu, Y., 2019. Review of Chinese English Learners' Prosodic Acquisition. English Language Teaching. 12(8), 89.

[16] Zou, L.L., 2021. A Study on Common Errors in Phonological Acquisition of Lower grade Children English Learners. Yan Bian College of Education. 35(5), 160–163.

[17] Hong, M., 2004. The negative transfer effect of English and Chinese phonological Differences on English phonological acquisition. Journal of Zhejiang Normal University. 29(2), 108–111.

[18] Cheng, C.M., He, A.P., 2008. Analysis of speech segment errors in Advanced English learners: a corpus-based study. Journal of Foreign Languages Institute of PLA. 31(1), 38–42.

[19] Xin, Y., 2010. On Common pronunciation Problems in English Pronunciation Teaching and their Countermeasures. Business Culture (Science and Technology Edition). 2010(2), 174–175.

[20] Liu, Y.Y., 2013. Analysis of Common Mistakes in Consonant Pronunciation of English Majors. Journal of Linguistics and Literature (Foreign Language Education and Education). 2013(5), 132–133.

[21] Li, L., 2006. The influence of Chinese on English Pronunciation Teaching and its Countermeasures. Journal of Foreign Languages College of Shandong Normal University (Basic English Education). 8(2), 3–7.

[22] Guo, M.H., 2002. On the role of mother tongue in foreign language class. Foreign Languages and Foreign Language Teaching. 2002(4), 24–27.

[23] Wang, J., 2011. A study on English Phonetics Teaching in Chinese Environment: Based on the influence of Chinese phonemes on English phonetics. Modern commercial trade industry. 23(18), 215–216.

[24] Zheng, G.F., 2011. The effect of mother tongue transfer on English Phonetics Acquisition and its countermeasures. Journal of Jilin Radio and Television University. 2011(2), 122–123.

[25] Tikofsky, R.S., 1967. Eric H. Lenneberg, Biological Foundations of Language.Wiley and Sons: New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830130610

[26] Penfield, W., Roberts, L., 1959. Speech and Brain Mechanism. Atheneum Press: Cambridge, MA, USA. pp. 120–125.

[27] Lantolf, J.L., 1990. A Time to Speak: A Psycholinguistic Inquiry into the Critical Period for Human Speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 12(1), 84–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100008779

[28] The CMU pronouncing dictionary. Available from: http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict/ (cited 1 November 2024).

[29] Sun, Y., 2008. A contrastive analysis of English and Chinese consonants. Journal of Changchun Normal University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition). 27(4), 111–114.

[30] Boersma, P., Weenink, D., 2019. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (version 6.0.49). Available from: http://www.praat.org/ (cited 1 November 2024).

[31] McAuliffe, M., Socolof, M., Mihuc, S., et al., 2017. Montreal Forced Aligner: trainable text-speech alignment using Kaldi. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association; Stockholm, Sweden, 20–24 August 2017; pp. 498–502. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2017-1386

[32] Zhao, G.L., Sonsaat, S., Silpachai, A., et al., 2018. L2-ARCTIC: A Non-Native English Speech Corpus. In Proceedings of the Conference of the International Speech Communication Association; Hyderabad, India, 2–6 September 2018; pp. 2783–2787.

[33] Li, K., Qian, X.J., Meng, H.M., 2017. Mispronunciation detection and diagnosis in L2 English speech using multi-distribution deep neural networks. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing. 25(1), 193–207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TASLP.2016.2621675

[34] Wang, B.R., Wang, P.R., Han, M.L., 2017. Age of Onset and China's English Learners' Foreign Language Proficiency-An Interpretation Based on Language Input. Journal of Northeastern University (Social Science). 19(2), 208–214.

[35] Yang, J., Xu, F., Ren, P., et al., 2007. The development of Chinese phonological awareness and English phonological awareness in early childhood. Psychological Science. 30(6), 1418–1421.

[36] Dong, Y.P., 2015. A brief analysis of common pronunciation problems in Middle school students' English learning. English for Middle School Students. 2015(22), 35.

[37] Wu, C.N., 2014. An analysis of the causes of Chinese students' English pronunciation errors. Overseas English. 2014(8), 266–267.

[38] Luo, T.F., 2020. Common problems and coping strategies of Chinese students' English pronunciation. Overseas English. 2020(17), 22–23.

[39] Major, R.C., Kim, E., 2002. The similarity differential rate hypothesis. Language Learning. 49(s1), 151–183.

[40] Kuhl, P.K., 1991. Human adults and human infants show a ‘perceptual magnet effect' for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do not. Perception and Psychophysics. 50(2), 93–107.

[41] Li, L., Li, Y.X., Kang, Y., et al., 2020. The role of tonal language experience in Mandarin tone perception among Chinese second speakers. Journal of South China Normal University (Social Science Edition). 2020(01), 83–91.

[42] Uludag, K., 2024. Exploring the Association Between Textual Parameters and Psychological and Cognitive Factors. Psychology Research and Behavior Management. 2024(17), 1139–1150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S460503

Downloads

How to Cite

Xie, Y., Tao, Y., Feng, X., Gao, X., He, X., Wang, Z., & Wang, L. (2025). English Consonant Pronunciation Errors Research among Chinese K-9 Learners. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(1), 556–565. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i1.7663

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 1 (January 2025)

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2025 Yanlu Xie, Yilin Tao, Xiaoli Feng, Xinyue Gao, Xiaoli He, Ziqing Wang, Liyuan Wang

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.