The perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong

Chan, Alice Yin Wa

doi:10.1515/ling-2013-0056

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In regard to the long vowels and diphthongs, English, as a stress-timed language, is characterized by overt durational differences between some of its vowels (Field, 2008), and the longer sounds can present a major challenge for learners from more syllable-timed first languages, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, whose L1 vowels are commonly more equal in length (Chan & Li, 2000; Deterding, 2010; Eastman, 1993). Three of the sounds that are particularly challenging for these learners are the vowels /iː/ and /uː/, and the diphthong /eɪ/ (Chan, 2014; Chan & Li, 2000; Chen, 2015; Deterding, 2010; Li & Sewell, 2012; Luk, 2010). The sounds can cause difficulties in any word or syllable position, but tend to be especially challenging when located centrally in closed syllables (Chan, 2014; Yeldham, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…from cheap to chip ), /uː/ tends to be shortened to /ʊ/ (especially in words such as moon and spoon ), and /eɪ/ is often shortened to /æ/ or /e/ (e.g. mainly to manly ) (Chan, 2014; Deterding, 2010; Luk, 2010; Yeldham, 2000). The shortening of the sounds in central position seems to be partly because after speakers expend effort on producing the preceding consonant, their mindfulness of the need to later produce a final consonant (along with dwindling reserves of breath), often encourages a shortening of the vowel/diphthong.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining the impact of abdominal enhancement techniques to assist Chinese-speaking English learners’ phoneme pronunciation

Yeldham

2020

Language Teaching Research

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Instruction in second language (L2) English phoneme pronunciation almost invariably includes a focus on improving the learners’ use of their articulatory organs to pronounce the relevant sounds. However, the pronunciation of many English sounds also relies on effort from the abdominal region, and under-utilization of this region can often contribute to pronunciation difficulties. For Chinese-speaking learners of English, such relevant sounds include the long vowel and diphthong sounds, particularly the phonemes /iː/, /uː/ and /eɪ/, and also the voiced fricative consonants, /z/, /ð/, /v/ and /ʒ/. Consequently, this study examined the impact of teaching adult Chinese-speaking English learners to enhance the use of their abdomen when pronouncing these sounds. The main focus of the research was a quasi-experimental component, where both an experimental and control group were taught the same way in all aspects, with the only point of difference being that the experimental group was taught the abdominal techniques. Longitudinal multiple-case studies of learners from the experimental group were also employed to examine for any post-course maintenance of the phonemes as well as possible reasons for this. Results from the quasi-experimental component showed that it was advantageous to teach learners the abdominal techniques. Also, there were some discernible trends in the learners’ post-course maintenance of the sounds. This article then discusses pedagogical implications of the study, and provides suggestions for future research of the abdominal techniques.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the impact of abdominal enhancement techniques to assist Chinese-speaking English learners’ phoneme pronunciation

Yeldham

2020

Language Teaching Research

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“…As for the learning of English pronunciation, perceiving the sounds plays an important role in making learners understand the sound, and producing the sounds is beneficial for learners to practice. As suggested by Chan (2014), despite the ease of Cantonese speakers to perceive some English consonants (eg. /v/ and /f/), they still struggle to speak well in these sounds.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and Production of English Consonants by Senior High School Students

Pei¹

2022

JED

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For Chinese students coming from different areas, they often encounter different English learning challenges in speaking and listening due to the influence from hometown accents. In comparison with Mandarin, the learners from Nanchang struggle with the pronunciation of /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/ sounds. Therefore, it is explored in this study whether Nanchang students face the same difficulties in listening and speaking when it comes to /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/. A total of 30 Nanchang senior three high school students participated in the perceiving and producing tests (comparing the English consonant minimal pairs: /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/), and they were invited to take interview about their personal attitudes and experiences about the learning of English consonants. It was revealed that there was no significant difference between producing and perceiving /ɹ/ and /l/, despite a significant difference in the performance on /n/-/ŋ/. Moreover, the perception of students about the English consonants shows a positive correlation with the production of the consonants. According to the interview, the lack of standard English learning resources was a major barrier to English study for students. The pedagogical implication is that the teachers in Nanchang area were suggested to provide pre-class speaking training, investigate the difficulty in English pronunciations for students, and teach pronunciation by playing the standard English video, which would be beneficial for senior high school EFL learners to improve the perception and production of English consonants.

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“…The research reported that words with initial (n) were produced invariably with (l). Chan (2014) does not mention /l/-/n/ as a problem for HK Cantonese EFL learners, indicating that initial /l/ is more likely to be confused with /ɹ/ or /w/, but this may be because Chan (2011), in a study of perception of English sounds by Cantonese EFL learners, found that their production was almost completely accurate (97%), and that learners were largely able to distinguish /l/ and /n/ initially (96% accurate). In an earlier contrastive analysis, Chan and Li (2000) characterized initial laterals in Cantonese in this way: initial (l) as in 'love' /lʌv/ may sometimes be pronounced with some "n" quality, giving the impression of a nasalized /l/ sound, viz.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Southwestern Mandarin /n/-/l/ Merger: Effects on Production in Standard Mandarin and English

Zhang

Levis

2021

Front. Commun.

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Southwestern Mandarin is one of the most important modern Chinese dialects, with over 270 million speakers. One of its most noticeable phonological features is an inconsistent distinction between the pronunciation of (n) and (l), a feature shared with Cantonese. However, while /n/-/l/ in Cantonese has been studied extensively, especially in its effect upon English pronunciation, the /l/-/n/ distinction has not been widely studied for Southwestern Mandarin speakers. Many speakers of Southwestern Mandarin learn Standard Mandarin as a second language when they begin formal schooling, and English as a third language later. Their lack of /l/-/n/ distinction is largely a marker of regional accent. In English, however, the lack of a distinction risks loss of intelligibility because of the high functional load of /l/-/n/. This study is a phonetic investigation of initial and medial (n) and (l) production in English and Standard Mandarin by speakers of Southwestern Mandarin. Our goal is to identify how Southwestern Mandarin speakers produce (n) and (l) in their additional languages, thus providing evidence for variations within Southwestern Mandarin and identifying likely difficulties for L2 learning. Twenty-five Southwestern Mandarin speakers recorded English words with word initial (n) and (l), medial <ll> or <nn> spellings (e.g., swallow, winner), and word-medial (nl) combinations (e.g., only) and (ln) combinations (e.g., walnut). They also read Standard Mandarin monosyllabic words with initial (l) and (n), and Standard Mandarin disyllabic words with (l) or (n). Of the 25 subjects, 18 showed difficulties producing (n) and (l) consistently where required, while seven (all part of the same regional variety) showed no such difficulty. The results indicate that SWM speakers had more difficulty with initial nasal sounds in Standard Mandarin, which was similar to their performance in producing Standard Mandarin monosyllabic words. For English, production of (l) was significantly less accurate than (n), and (l) production in English was significantly worse than in Standard Mandarin. When both sounds occurred next to each other, there was a tendency toward producing only one sound, suggesting that the speakers assimilated production toward one phonological target. The results suggest that L1 influence may differ for the L2 and L3.

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The perception and production of English speech sounds by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong

Cited by 9 publications

References 35 publications

Examining the impact of abdominal enhancement techniques to assist Chinese-speaking English learners’ phoneme pronunciation

Examining the impact of abdominal enhancement techniques to assist Chinese-speaking English learners’ phoneme pronunciation

Perception and Production of English Consonants by Senior High School Students

The Southwestern Mandarin /n/-/l/ Merger: Effects on Production in Standard Mandarin and English

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