中国学生英语辅音识别混淆模式研究_英语论文

Identification of English Consonants by Chinese EFL Learners

摘要

通过一个语音范畴感知听辨实验，对中国大学生的英语辅音全集知识别混淆情况进行测试，由此研究学习者英语辅音感知的知觉心理机制。十九名中国学生参加了此次英语辅音识别实验。

根据结果显示，高水平的英语学习者相比低水平学习者，能够较好地识别英语辅音。而在辅音识别中，中国学生对爆破音，鼻音以及边音表现得较好，而对于摩擦音以及塞擦音则表现得较差。原因可能在于，中文和英文里面有着类似的爆破音和鼻音，这属于语言的正迁移。而摩擦音及塞擦音则在中文里面很难找到与之相对应的辅音，受中文负迁移的影响，他们在英语辅音识别时，出现了辅音的混淆。中国英语学习者在识别英语辅音时，并不能很好的区别清浊辅音，原因可能是在中文里面，并没有清音与浊音之分。导致英语学习者在英文辅音识别时，出现了清浊辅音混淆的情况。实验结果还表明，英语学习者所认为地他们理想的英语辅音识别能力与他们在这一领域的实际能力有很大的差别。根据问卷调查结果表明，英语学习者认为自己既能够较好的识别英语辅音，又能够较好地区别它们。但是实验结果以及相关系数显示，中国学生对于很多辅音往往不能很好地进行区别。这一发现正好证实了现在中国学生“哑巴英语”这一现象的严重性。

关键词：水平；感知；辅音识别；范畴识别

Abstract

By means of Category identification, the consonant perception of Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners has been tested. Hence their perceptual psychological mechanism of English consonants has been studied. Nineteen Chinese listeners participated in an English consonant identification experiment.

According to the results, listeners with higher English language experience had a better identification of English consonants than lower English language experience listeners. In consonant identification, Chinese students did a better job in plosives, nasals and lateral approximant, while their performance in identification in affricates and fricatives was lower. The reason might be that both Chinese and English have similar consonants of plosives and nasals. This is what we call the positive transfer of native language. As for consonants like affricates and fricatives, it’s hard to find counterparts in Chinese. Therefore, affected by negative transfer of native language, they were confused in identifying those consonants. The Chinese students also found it difficult to distinguish the differences between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds. The reason might be that Chinese consonants do not distinguish voiceless and voiced sounds. Therefore, when trying to identify the English consonants, Chinese students were confused in voiced and voiceless sounds. The results also demonstrate that there was a big difference between the perceived knowledge of English consonants which the speakers think they have and their actual abilities on this field. According to the questionnaire, Chinese EFL learners thought they could not only identify the English consonants, but also distinguish their differences. Nevertheless, the results of the identification experiment and the correlation index showed that Chinese students had many problems in distinguishing some sounds. This finding proved that there is a serious issue about “dumb English” in China.

Keywords: experience; perception; consonant identification; category identification 

Contents

I. Introduction1

 II. Literature Review3

2.1 Studies in second language sound acquisition3

2.1 The Comparison Between Chinese and English Consonants  5

III. Methodology8

3.1 Subject  8

3.2 Stimuli  8

3.3 Procedure 8

IV. Results10

4.1 Questionnaire Illustration10

4.2 Identification of English Consonants11

4.2.1 Scores for Identifying the Stops  13

4.2.2 Scores for Identifying the Affricates13

4.2.3 Scores for Identifying the Fricatives13

4.2.4 Scores for Identifying the Nasals 14

4.2.5 Scores for Identifying the Other Sounds15

4.3 Comparison Between Questionnaire and Test Results15

V. Conclusion19

VI. Discussion 21

Bibliography 22

Appendix 24