English Vowel 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.v7i1.7670
Received: 3 November 2024 | Revised: 15 November 2024 | Accepted: 21 November 2024 | Published Online: 7 January 2025

Abstract

Among bilingual Mandarin-English children, spoken-English learners of different ages have different pronunciation characteristics. This paper studies English vowel pronunciation errors of Chinese learners from kindergarten to 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 that: (1) The overall English vowel acquisition error ratio of the KC group is higher than that of the PS group, and the PS group is higher 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 do not exist in Chinese. (3) English vowel pronunciation errors of the KC group tend to be concentrated and specific, and English vowel errors of the PS and MS groups tend to be scattered and diverse. Understanding the English vowel pronunciation errors in learners of different ages can be more targeted to correct learners' pronunciation errors. According to the English vowel mispronunciation and the Chinese mother tongue influence of different aged learners, we analyze the characteristics and causes of learners' errors and try to provide some references for oral English teaching.

Keywords:

L2 Acquisition; Mispronunciation Patterns; Vowel Contrast; Learner Age Differences

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How to Cite

Xie, Y., Tao, Y., Feng, X., Gao, X., He, X., Wang, Z., & Wang, L. (2025). English Vowel Pronunciation Errors Research among Chinese K-9 Learners. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(1), 566–577. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i1.7670

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 1 (January 2025)

Article Type

Article

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

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