English Pronunciation Problems

Abstract

When learning English as a foreign language, pronunciation is always found as a big problem faced by Hong Kong students and Mainland China students, This research paper aims to give a brief summary of English pronunciation problems found in Hong Kong students and Mainland China students and discuss some teaching methods suggested by scholars. The recommended teaching methods aim to help teaching accurate Received Pronunciation (RP) and encourage student to learn English pronunciation and communication actively.

Introduction

English is a global language that many countries like China and Singapore have taught it as the foreign language for a long time. As an international city, Hong Kong is well known for its bilingual education

77). Take ‘A lot of’ as an example, as the three words have an the identical tone; when the second word ‘lot’ ends with a consonant ‘t’ and the third word ‘of’ starts with a vowel ‘o’, the consonant ‘t’ will be linked to the next syllable, which create a pronunciation of ‘a-lo-tof’ instead of ‘a-lot-of’. With the rules mentioned above, ‘pick it up’ should also be pronounced as ‘pic-ki-tup’; however, there are no such rules in both Cantonese and Mandarin. For Mandarin, both the first and the end syllables should be heard clearly. Syllables in Mandarin never end with consonants excluding /n/, /ng/and /r/. For Cantonese, although there are syllables ended with /k/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /p/ and /t/ in Cantonese, “the quality of /k/, /p/, /t/ in Cantonese is different from that in English” (“Chinese Pronunciation Problems”, n.d.).Therefore, both Hong Kong and Chinese ESL students have difficulty linking the words to make the pronunciation sounds

With comparing with written English, oral English is also important. In fact, oral English is more practice and frequently used in daily communication. Therefore, apart from paying great effort in providing systematic grammar practices and exercise, teachers also need to pay great attention in accurate English pronunciation. In this research papers, I have briefly discussed the major pronunciation errors encountered by HKC and MC students. When knowing the factors affecting HKC and MC students’ pronunciation mentioned above, teachers should try different approaches to tackle the specific pronunciation errors and make sure students are also aware of those errors as those are not simply pronunciation characteristic but errors. As mentioned above, there are contrasts between English and Chinese phonological systems. Teachers may consider implementing tailor-made oral teaching materials, which include the source of the pronunciation errors and remedial exercises for students. Apart from using comprehensive teaching materials, teachers may also consider different teaching methods, which encourage students to take the initiative to learn and to teach. It is not easy to change one’s habit or perception in pronunciation; however, with a clear teaching programme, teacher can infuse students with accurate English pronunciation