Common Pronunciation and Grammar Errors Faced by Chinese Speakers of English

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Common Pronunciation andGrammar Errors Faced
byChinese Speakers of English

• Jane Coates

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Pronunciation and Grammar Errors

• 2 very different language families Methods of
  learning
• memorisation and rote learning are very important
  for the basic written units of Chinese the
  characters
• Chinese learners of English spend more time on
  memorisation rather than speaking and listening
  skills.

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Pronunciation and Grammar Errors

• Sounds are the building blocks of spoken
  language.
• Some English sounds do not have matching Chinese
  sounds and are hard to learn.
• Others sound like Chinese sounds but are not
  identical in pronunciation and cause confusion.

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Difficult sounds
th sounds

• Trouble for many non-native speakers of English
• Resulting sounds are often z and s.
• Thin may be pronounced tin, fin or sin.
  This may be pronounced dis or zis
• Describe and model where the tongue goes.
• Move to paying attention to the sounds in some
  real conversations. e.g. Interview classmates
  with questions that require the th sounds. What
  are you thinking about? What are you thankful for?

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Difficult sounds-th

• Practice with minimal pairs
• think - sink
• thank - sank
• mouth - mouse
• faith face
• these - seas sees - seize
• that - sat
• Practice with a tongue twister e.g.
• Those thirteen thin students sat in the classroom
  thinking. Although the weather was changing and
  the temperature sinking, they forgot their thick
  jackets. What were those thirteen foolish
  students thinking?

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Difficult sounds-th

• Use Jazz Chants to teach the correct sound
• Tooth, tooth, I have a toothache.
• I have a toothache,
• And a sore throat!
• Thursdays, Thursdays.
• What do you do on Thursdays?
• On Thursdays I often go to a football game.
•  

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Sounds

• r l and n sounds
• Difficult to distinguish between so fried
  becomes flied
• l in a final position is particularly
  difficult - may be replaced by r or simply
  dropped. e.g. bill may be pronounced beer or
  bi
• n sound
• Absent from many Chinese dialects therefore
  difficult to distinguish night from light

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Difficult sounds-L

• A Tongue Twister
• A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.Said the
  flea, "Let us fly!"Said the fly, "Let us
  flee!"So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

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Difficult sounds-L

• Tongue Twisters
• You've no need to light a night-lightOn a
  light night like tonight,For a night-light's
  light's a slight light,And tonight's a night
  that's light.When a night's light, like
  tonight's light,It is really not quite rightTo
  light night-lights with their slight lightsOn a
  light night like tonight.

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N and R sounds

• Which noise annoys an oyster most?
• A noisy noise annoys an oyster most.
• Round the rugged rock
• The ragged rascal ran.

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v and w Z

• v sound
• Absent from most Chinese dialects - sometimes
  treated like w or f invite may be pronounced
  inwite live pronounced lif
• z sound
• Absent from most Chinese dialects - usual error
  is to substitute s rise may become rice

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V and w sounds

• Whether the weather be cold or whether the
  weather be hot We'll be together whatever the
  weather, whether we like it or not.
• Which witch wished which wicked wish?

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Sounds

• Final consonants
• These cause serious problems. As there are few
  final consonants in the Chinese language, Chinese
  speakers of English tend to either add an extra
  vowel at the end or to drop the consonant.
• Books becomes booksa
• Initial consonant clusters-bl- cr- sm- sw
• These are lacking in Chinese. The common error is
  to insert a slight vowel sound between the
  consonants pronouncing spoon as sipoon.

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vowels

• Vowels-ai- ou- oa- oi- ue-
• There are more vowel contrasts in English
• There is no equivalent in Chinese for some sounds
• Hard to distinguish are eat and it, bean
  and bin
• fool and full, Luke and look, snack and
  snake

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Changing Sounds - Elision

• Native speakers speak very quickly!
• Sounds may be dropped!
• This disappearance of sounds is known as elision.
• There are 2 sounds that are frequently dropped
• t and d
• e.g. you will hear the t in fact but not in
  facts and you will hear the d in land but
  not in landlady
• My landlady bought a new handbag the other
  day.
• I dont know when they finished work
  yesterday.
• Lets face the facts. This Company is going bust
  quickly.

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Stress and intonation

• Stress and intonation are areas of difficulty.
• Most 2 syllable nouns have the stress on the
  first sound.
• Most 2 syllable verbs have the stress on the end
  sound.
• In some 3 syllable words and in most words of 4
  syllables or more there are 2 stressed
  syllables-one carries the main stress and the
  other secondary stress
• ultimatum investigation determination
• interfere congratulations departure

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Stress and intonation

• Look at pairs of words and decide where the main
  stress is in the first word and if it stays the
  same in the second word
• photograph - photography
• consult - consultant
• estimate - estimation
• refer - referral

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Stress and intonation

• Syllable stress changes in a family of words
• photograph, photo, photographer, photography
• record (noun) record (verb) recording
• sentiment sentimental

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Stress and intonation

• Contrastive stress
• This is when we stress a word very strongly
  especially when we correct someone, e.g.
• Heres the cheese sandwich you
  wanted.
• Thats wrong. I ordered a meat sandwich.
• O.K. Thats two white coffees.
• No. I always drink black coffee.
• Did you buy that cotton shirt you were looking
  at?
• No. I bought the silk shirt.

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Key or new information is often stressed at
sentence level

• Ill be arriving at ten at Heathrow because of
  a delay, so Ill get the
• last train back to Leeds and be home late.
• Where did you go yesterday?
• I was in Leeds yesterday.
• When were you in Leeds?
• I was in Leeds yesterday.
• There was no-one in Leeds yesterday.
• I was in Leeds yesterday.
• The stress changes because what is new is
  different in each sentence.

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Stress and intonation

• Customer Have you got any frozen peas?
• Shopkeeper No. But we do have tinned peas.
• Customer No. I really need frozen peas.
• Stress can also be used for contrasting,
  contradicting and disagreeing.
• e.g. David Beckham is quite good really.
• David Beckham isnt good, hes magnificent.

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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use

• Gender Confusing he and she.
• The spoken forms of he she and it are all
  the same in Chinese. Chinese speakers find
  difficulty in applying the rule consistently.
• e.g. She is a good Director. His films are very
  good.
• Ive a brother and shes working in
  a factor
• Tenses and Time
• Chinese and English speakers express the concept
  of time very differently.
• e.g. My brother left home since nine oclock.
• Ive seen her two days ago.
• I found that the room is empty.

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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use

• Modals
• Communication in English requires polite forms of
  instructions, invitations, requests and
  suggestions, in which modals play a central role.
  If Chinese speakers do not use modals then they
  may appear to speak more formally-or even rudely.
• Should is easy as it corresponds to a Chinese
  modal. But in some sentences its use is more
  difficult. e.g. Its strange that you should say
  this.
• e.g. Can you do me a favour?/Could you please
  do me a favour? Would it be possible..?

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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use

• Articles
• There are no articles in Chinese and therefore
  Chinese speakers find it hard to use them.
• They may omit the article
• Lets make fire, I can play piano. X
• Or insert unnecessary ones
• He finished the school last year, He was in
  a pain. X
• Or confuse the use of the definite and indefinite
  articles
• She is a tallest girl in the class X
• He smashed the vase in the anger. X

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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use

• Countable and uncountable nouns
• The English concept of countability is hard to
  grasp.
• For example, furniture, equipment, luggage, news
  etc. can all be counted to the Chinese way of
  understanding.
• This leads to errors such as
• Let me tell you an interesting news.
• She as brought many luggages with her.

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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use

• Progressive aspect causes difficulty
• What do you read? for What are you reading?
• I sit here for a long time for- I have been
  sitting here for a long time.
• Adjectives and verbs are frequently identical in
  Chinese.
• Thus the verb to be tends to be dropped when
  followed by predicative adjectives.
• I busy, She very happy.
• I am busy. She is very happy.
• Parts of speech
• Parts of speech in Chinese are not always
  formally distinguished. The same word may often
  serve different structural functions. It is easy
  to confuse related words such as difficult and
  difficulty in terms of their parts of speech or
  to appreciate the fact that certain functions in
  a sentence can only be fulfilled by words from
  certain classes
• She likes walk, It is very difficulty to
  convince him.
• I have not son.

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Jane teaching her class
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Different styles and methods of teaching
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Group activities
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Class groups
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The joy of teaching