British English and American English are regarded as the two major varieties of English in the world, and Canadian English is often treated as a variation of American English. The paper aims to identify the major phon...British English and American English are regarded as the two major varieties of English in the world, and Canadian English is often treated as a variation of American English. The paper aims to identify the major phonetic features of Canadian English by addressing its differences from British and American English based on a historical, demographical, and regional and dialectal analysis. Canadian English is a cultural phenomenon that has evolved on the basis of British English and under the heavy influence of American English. As a distinctive variety of English, Canadian English possesses its phonetic uniqueness. And in the context of globalization, Canadian English will remain subject to Americanization.展开更多
English and Chinese belong to different linguistic systems, so English and Chinese syllables, as the basic linguistic structure, own great differences in syllable structure, syllabification, syllable function as well ...English and Chinese belong to different linguistic systems, so English and Chinese syllables, as the basic linguistic structure, own great differences in syllable structure, syllabification, syllable function as well as liaison. Chinese English learners are apt to have the negative transfer in English pronunciation acquisition under the influence of their mother tongue-Chinese. Therefore, only the repeated imitation and practice on the ground of theoretical contrasts and analyses can help learners speak perfect English.展开更多
The present paper is a response to the current problematic situation of oral English teaching at the tertiary level in China and the increasing popularity of web-based mobile oral English learning in oral English clas...The present paper is a response to the current problematic situation of oral English teaching at the tertiary level in China and the increasing popularity of web-based mobile oral English learning in oral English classes.Our paper focuses on the use of mobile-phone-based educational software known as“English Fun Dubbing”(EFD)and its advantages in terms of teaching and learning phonetics and oral English in the college classroom.The starting point was a needs analysis which revealed the lack of practice regarding English speaking.In this study,an action research method was adopted,involving 40 second-year students,who employed“classroom teaching+English Fun Dubbing”model as the intervention.Extensive examples from this model were used to build up a picture of the blended learning processes at work.Several imitation tasks,a conversational activity and a speech-delivering task were designed and implemented.Direct observation and the results of the questionnaire survey provided the evidence of the improvement in the students’oral performance.It is our aim to develop the present project to incorporate oral proficiency.The main results of this action research were reflected in the adjustments in the pedagogical treatment,the changes in the role of the teacher and the student,and the shifts in the students’attitudes towards their learning process.展开更多
Traditionally, English pronunciation teaching in universities in China is always focused on the theoretical teaching in classroom, which cannot meet the requirements of society. At the same time, the new national stan...Traditionally, English pronunciation teaching in universities in China is always focused on the theoretical teaching in classroom, which cannot meet the requirements of society. At the same time, the new national standard of business English major puts forward higher demands of the educational objectives of the course. In order to adapt to the reform of business English major, university teachers of English pronunciation course should be active in promoting the curriculum reform. This paper proposes to make suggestions to change the traditional theory teaching of classroom and to improve the students＇ practical skills by training.展开更多
In pronunciation teaching, learners may have difficulty when there is a ＂gap＂ in the phonemic system between L1 （the first or native language） and L2 （the second or foreign language）. In such a case, they tend t...In pronunciation teaching, learners may have difficulty when there is a ＂gap＂ in the phonemic system between L1 （the first or native language） and L2 （the second or foreign language）. In such a case, they tend to use their native language sounds in speaking the foreign language. Since some Chinese and English vowel sounds are easy to be confused, applying IPA cardinal vowels in the teaching of English pronunciation will help Chinese learners identify the difference between an English vowel sound and a Chinese vowel sound and thus enables them to make intelligible English speech sounds.展开更多
The aim of the article is to present results of research that was performed with 97 Polish students of the second and third year of English Philology. The purpose of the research is to examine how conscious manipulati...The aim of the article is to present results of research that was performed with 97 Polish students of the second and third year of English Philology. The purpose of the research is to examine how conscious manipulation of facial expressions aids acquisition of foreign vowels by learners, regardless of their native language and the culture they have been brought up in. Taking advantage of achievements derived from such disciplines as psychology of emotions and phonetics depicted as a physical process, an attempt is made to find a tool that improves teaching/learning of foreign vowels, that is to say, an effort is put in search of a useful method to make the phonetic process faster and more accurate. Teachers of English are encouraged to put the method, which is described in detail in the paper, into practice with their own mother languages and to share opinions about the method with colleagues. Similarly, it is believed that it can be applied to courses of other languages than just English. Teachers of those languages are encouraged to try to use it, too.展开更多
The present study explores the effects of phonological awareness training of child EFL learners in China on their reading performances. Eighty grade one Chinese children from two intact primary school classes particip...The present study explores the effects of phonological awareness training of child EFL learners in China on their reading performances. Eighty grade one Chinese children from two intact primary school classes participated in the study. The treatment class received a 10-week English phonological awareness training, while the contrast class did not receive any training. Both pre-test and post-test were administered to all participants, including English assessment, phonological awareness measures and English reading measures. The results show that the treatment class outperformed the contrast class in the post-test in reading measures and phonological awareness measures; phonological awareness positively correlated with children＇s early reading performance; phoneme tasks were strong predictors of Child EFL learners＇ early reading performance.展开更多
This article investigates the formative influence of voice on the argumentative writing performance of intermediate students of English. Its aim is to achieve a better understanding of how the students＇ voice develop...This article investigates the formative influence of voice on the argumentative writing performance of intermediate students of English. Its aim is to achieve a better understanding of how the students＇ voice develops in the revision process in relation to the rubric and the essay scores. The data consist of Chinese sophomores＇ multi-draft essays. As first-person pronouns are the most visible representation of a writer＇s voice, this article gives a detailed description of the features and developmental patterns of first-person pronouns （FPPs）. The results reveal that revision-induced changes in FPP can be beneficial to the quality of essay writing but only in a limited number of cases if the students are not formally instructed in voice, which carries pedagogical implications to empower students＇ self-identity in EFL writing.展开更多
This is a qualitative study of the types of segmental repair that maintain mutual intelligibility in English-as-a-Lingua-Franca interactions among Chinese and Japanese speakers of English （Jenkins, 2000; Matsumoto 20...This is a qualitative study of the types of segmental repair that maintain mutual intelligibility in English-as-a-Lingua-Franca interactions among Chinese and Japanese speakers of English （Jenkins, 2000; Matsumoto 2011; O＇Neal 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2015d, 2016, in press）. Repair refers to a set of practices through which conversation participants stop the ongoing action to attend to actual or potential problems 1：o the maintenance of mutual intelligibility （Schegloff, 2007; N^meth, 2012）. Although anything can potentially be a problem to the maintenance of mutual intelligibility, this study focuses only on instances of the repair of segmental phonemes so that the pronunciation remains mutually intelligible. Using conversation analytic methodology to examine a corpus of repair sequences concerning pronunciation among Chinese and Japanese students at a Japanese university, this study claims that three segmental repair strategies are used in the interactions to maintain mutually intelligible pronunciation： segmental phoneme modification, segmental phoneme insertion, and segmental phoneme deletion.展开更多
文摘British English and American English are regarded as the two major varieties of English in the world, and Canadian English is often treated as a variation of American English. The paper aims to identify the major phonetic features of Canadian English by addressing its differences from British and American English based on a historical, demographical, and regional and dialectal analysis. Canadian English is a cultural phenomenon that has evolved on the basis of British English and under the heavy influence of American English. As a distinctive variety of English, Canadian English possesses its phonetic uniqueness. And in the context of globalization, Canadian English will remain subject to Americanization.
文摘English and Chinese belong to different linguistic systems, so English and Chinese syllables, as the basic linguistic structure, own great differences in syllable structure, syllabification, syllable function as well as liaison. Chinese English learners are apt to have the negative transfer in English pronunciation acquisition under the influence of their mother tongue-Chinese. Therefore, only the repeated imitation and practice on the ground of theoretical contrasts and analyses can help learners speak perfect English.
文摘The present paper is a response to the current problematic situation of oral English teaching at the tertiary level in China and the increasing popularity of web-based mobile oral English learning in oral English classes.Our paper focuses on the use of mobile-phone-based educational software known as“English Fun Dubbing”(EFD)and its advantages in terms of teaching and learning phonetics and oral English in the college classroom.The starting point was a needs analysis which revealed the lack of practice regarding English speaking.In this study,an action research method was adopted,involving 40 second-year students,who employed“classroom teaching+English Fun Dubbing”model as the intervention.Extensive examples from this model were used to build up a picture of the blended learning processes at work.Several imitation tasks,a conversational activity and a speech-delivering task were designed and implemented.Direct observation and the results of the questionnaire survey provided the evidence of the improvement in the students’oral performance.It is our aim to develop the present project to incorporate oral proficiency.The main results of this action research were reflected in the adjustments in the pedagogical treatment,the changes in the role of the teacher and the student,and the shifts in the students’attitudes towards their learning process.
文摘Traditionally, English pronunciation teaching in universities in China is always focused on the theoretical teaching in classroom, which cannot meet the requirements of society. At the same time, the new national standard of business English major puts forward higher demands of the educational objectives of the course. In order to adapt to the reform of business English major, university teachers of English pronunciation course should be active in promoting the curriculum reform. This paper proposes to make suggestions to change the traditional theory teaching of classroom and to improve the students＇ practical skills by training.
文摘In pronunciation teaching, learners may have difficulty when there is a ＂gap＂ in the phonemic system between L1 （the first or native language） and L2 （the second or foreign language）. In such a case, they tend to use their native language sounds in speaking the foreign language. Since some Chinese and English vowel sounds are easy to be confused, applying IPA cardinal vowels in the teaching of English pronunciation will help Chinese learners identify the difference between an English vowel sound and a Chinese vowel sound and thus enables them to make intelligible English speech sounds.
文摘The aim of the article is to present results of research that was performed with 97 Polish students of the second and third year of English Philology. The purpose of the research is to examine how conscious manipulation of facial expressions aids acquisition of foreign vowels by learners, regardless of their native language and the culture they have been brought up in. Taking advantage of achievements derived from such disciplines as psychology of emotions and phonetics depicted as a physical process, an attempt is made to find a tool that improves teaching/learning of foreign vowels, that is to say, an effort is put in search of a useful method to make the phonetic process faster and more accurate. Teachers of English are encouraged to put the method, which is described in detail in the paper, into practice with their own mother languages and to share opinions about the method with colleagues. Similarly, it is believed that it can be applied to courses of other languages than just English. Teachers of those languages are encouraged to try to use it, too.
基金supported by grant from Guangdong Provincial Government2012年广东省社科立项项目"语音意识训练对小学生英语读写能力的影响研究"的部分成果
文摘The present study explores the effects of phonological awareness training of child EFL learners in China on their reading performances. Eighty grade one Chinese children from two intact primary school classes participated in the study. The treatment class received a 10-week English phonological awareness training, while the contrast class did not receive any training. Both pre-test and post-test were administered to all participants, including English assessment, phonological awareness measures and English reading measures. The results show that the treatment class outperformed the contrast class in the post-test in reading measures and phonological awareness measures; phonological awareness positively correlated with children＇s early reading performance; phoneme tasks were strong predictors of Child EFL learners＇ early reading performance.
文摘This article investigates the formative influence of voice on the argumentative writing performance of intermediate students of English. Its aim is to achieve a better understanding of how the students＇ voice develops in the revision process in relation to the rubric and the essay scores. The data consist of Chinese sophomores＇ multi-draft essays. As first-person pronouns are the most visible representation of a writer＇s voice, this article gives a detailed description of the features and developmental patterns of first-person pronouns （FPPs）. The results reveal that revision-induced changes in FPP can be beneficial to the quality of essay writing but only in a limited number of cases if the students are not formally instructed in voice, which carries pedagogical implications to empower students＇ self-identity in EFL writing.
文摘This is a qualitative study of the types of segmental repair that maintain mutual intelligibility in English-as-a-Lingua-Franca interactions among Chinese and Japanese speakers of English （Jenkins, 2000; Matsumoto 2011; O＇Neal 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2015d, 2016, in press）. Repair refers to a set of practices through which conversation participants stop the ongoing action to attend to actual or potential problems 1：o the maintenance of mutual intelligibility （Schegloff, 2007; N^meth, 2012）. Although anything can potentially be a problem to the maintenance of mutual intelligibility, this study focuses only on instances of the repair of segmental phonemes so that the pronunciation remains mutually intelligible. Using conversation analytic methodology to examine a corpus of repair sequences concerning pronunciation among Chinese and Japanese students at a Japanese university, this study claims that three segmental repair strategies are used in the interactions to maintain mutually intelligible pronunciation： segmental phoneme modification, segmental phoneme insertion, and segmental phoneme deletion.
