英语论文网

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background
"One of the chief characteristics of human beings is their ability to communicate withtheir complicated messages concerning every aspect of their activity" (Cruttenden 2001:3)English, as an international language, is an important tool for communication between peoplefrom different countries. Speech sound is an essential element to English which can directlyaffects the success of communication. Consequently, accurate and intelligible pronunciation isof great importance for language learners. However, speaking native English is not an easything for Chinese learners. Most Chinese students' pronunciation are influenced by motherlanguage more or less，especially their dialectal accents, as is pointed out by Lee(1968:180)that the prime cause, or the sole cause , of difficulty and error in foreign language learning isinterference coming fi*om the learner's native language. When a phoneme in the targetlanguage does not exist in the native language, learners are unconsciously accustomed totransferring the similar sound of their mother tongue into that of the foreign language they arelearning or moving the pronunciation habits of local accent into the foreign language. It iswell known that China is a very big country with many different regions, in which peoplespeak different dialects. Influenced by local accent, many Chinese English learners speakEnglish with a certain dialect. To a large extent, dialectal accents have become a barrier forlearners to acquire English pronunciation better，to say the least.Chaoyang, located in the west of Liaoning Province, is a transition area between Beijingofficial language and northeast official language. Compared with other cities in Northeast, itsdialects are closer to Putonghua, and most of its initials and finals are the same as those ofChinese Putonghua. Despite all this, it has its own regional characteristics in pronunciation.Take final /ai/ for example, Chaoyang native speakers cannot tell local sound /e/ andPutonghua final /ai/，and always use local sound /e/ to replace it.
……………

1.2 Research Purpose and Significance
With the purpose of putting forward an effective way to improve the EFL education inChaoyang area, the thesis focuses on the influence of Chaoyang local accent on theacquisition of English pronunciation, to work out some strategies to avoid the influence orinterference from local accent. The significance of the thesis is:From theoretical point of view, through contrastive studies, the universality andparticularity of two languages would be present. Before it, few people know about the systemof Chaoyang dialect, let alone the distinction between Chaoyang dialect and English inpronunciation. In addition, the study testifies and develops language transfer theory in secondlanguage acquisition. This study also extends the theory of first language transfer into a moreconcrete branch，that is, LI transfer becomes more specified. In the study of first languagetransfer, dialect should take the place of LI when dialect plays an important role in SLA andbears strong influence on L2 pronunciation.Empirically, first of all，this study will benefit both local teachers and students. Forteachers, it may remind them to lay emphasis on the phonetic teaching and adopt appropriateand practical ways for more effective pronunciati本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。