key features of the teaching of pronunciation and difficulties and solutions for Chinese students to learn English in classroom
Describe the key features of the teaching of pronunciation. Explain with examples what some of the difficult issues are for learners from one language background of your choice, and state how you would address these issues in the classroom.
Nowadays English is universally known as a global language for people from different countries to communicate with each other. Wierzbicka (2006) considers it as “the world’s most widely used language” (p.3). There is no doubt that learners from all over the world are studying English. But their purposes for intending to learn English could vary from each other. According to Harmer (2007), English learners could be basically divided into three types: learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and those who learn general English without special purposes. No matter what the purposes the students study English for, learning to pronounce correctly is still one of the most important steps to acquire a language.
This essay mainly takes Chinese learners as an example to illustrate the five key features of the teaching of pronunciation and list some of the difficult issues to explain why it is hard for Chinese to learn the pronunciation of English. This essay also gives some practical solutions to those difficulties in order to help Chinese students to improve their pronunciation.
There are four main areas of key features of English pronunciation. These are:
1. Sound. It is the basis of pronunciation and mainly consists of vowels and consonants.
2. Stress. It contains two similar types of stress: word stress and sentence. Word stress refers to “the stress patterns associated with the words of a particular language when they are considered in isolation”. Sentence stress is also a kind of “stress patterns which is connected with words as arranged in sentences in a particular language”. (Dictionary, com.)
3. Intonation. It refers to how the voice rises and falls when people speak.
Nowadays English is universally known as a global language for people from different countries to communicate with each other. Wierzbicka (2006) considers it as “the world’s most widely used language” (p.3). There is no doubt that learners from all over the world are studying English. But their purposes for intending to learn English could vary from each other. According to Harmer (2007), English learners could be basically divided into three types: learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), learning English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and those who learn general English without special purposes. No matter what the purposes the students study English for, learning to pronounce correctly is still one of the most important steps to acquire a language.
This essay mainly takes Chinese learners as an example to illustrate the five key features of the teaching of pronunciation and list some of the difficult issues to explain why it is hard for Chinese to learn the pronunciation of English. This essay also gives some practical solutions to those difficulties in order to help Chinese students to improve their pronunciation.
There are four main areas of key features of English pronunciation. These are:
1. Sound. It is the basis of pronunciation and mainly consists of vowels and consonants.
2. Stress. It contains two similar types of stress: word stress and sentence. Word stress refers to “the stress patterns associated with the words of a particular language when they are considered in isolation”. Sentence stress is also a kind of “stress patterns which is connected with words as arranged in sentences in a particular language”. (Dictionary, com.)
3. Intonation. It refers to how the voice rises and falls when people speak.