Correct English pronunciation is a prerequisite for fluent communication in English， wrong English pronunciation will hinder the process of communication. As second language learners， Chinese learners firstly gain their mother tongue before the second language， therefore， their English pronunciation will be influenced by their mother tongue. This paper focuses on the study of the negative effect of the mother tongue， based on the knowledge of English phonetics and the contrast analysis of Chinese and English in second language acquisition， main reasons and the formation process of these problems are explained.

Ⅰ. Mother tongue transfer

Transfer is “a term used by psychologists in their accounts of the way in which present learning is affected by past learning.” Odlin has suggested that transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired. Mother tongue transfer is a kind of cognitive and linguistic phenomenon. Based on the learning experience and the knowledge of mother tongue， second language learners tend to set up certain connections between the second language and their mother tongue consciously and unconsciously. They will transfer their acquired knowledge， including both linguistic and grammatical knowledge. These connections may be positive or negative for their learning. When inappropriate or wrong connections which have negative influence are set up， negative transfer occurs. In this case， first-language-induced pronunciation errors occur.

Ⅱ. Common errors and their formation

Though Chinese and English both have vowels， there are still differences in pronunciation. Even some of the English vowels and Chinese vowels have the same manners and places of articulation， errors may also occur due to different phonetic environment caused by different structural system in phonetics.

For example， in English there is a series of vowel sounds in which the muscles of the tongue are tense， as opposed to another series in which they are held lax， such as /i:/ and /i/， /u:/ and /u/. However， in mandarin， there is no such contrast that is phonemic， because all the vowels in Chinese are tense. So Chinese students can hardly tell the differences between these two sounds and often make mistakes. Since these vowels such as /i:/ and /u:/ don’t appear before affricate and stop， Chinese learners often replace /i:/ in such words as teach， peach， leap with /i/.

Another example of mother tongue transfer is that Chinese learners tend to add extra sounds to the original sounds. This kind of error often occurs when a consonant is placed at the end of a word or two or more than two consonants are used together. Since this usage of consonants is rare in Chinese and difficult for articulation， Chinese learners tend to use their Chinese phonetic knowledge to replace the English rules which serves for their own convenience. For instance， some Chinese learners tend to replace [buk] (book) with [buk#601;]， [siksθs] (sixths) with [sik#601;sisisi]， [#712;aelig;kses] (access) with [#712;aelig;k#601;sesi]， and [pli:z] (please) with [pli:zi]. Because Chinese is monosyllabic， consonants are usually attached to a vowel and hardly appear alone (except n and y)， besides， Chinese doesn’t have consonant clusters. Therefore， Chinese learners tend to transfer their knowledge of mother tongue to English and add vowels between consonants.

Ⅲ. Suggestions

ⅰ. Second language learners must learn the phonetic knowledge of English systematically.

ⅱ. Chinese learners should make a contrast study of Chinese and English.

ⅲ. Practice and error-correction process is very important. In fact， most pronunciation errors can be avoided by practice and error-correction process.

English pronunciation is a crucial part in the initial stage of English learning process. Correct English pronunciation will benefit learners in all aspects. In fact， many experiments have proved that negative transfer of mother tongue is temporary and can be prevented by training and learning.

References

【1】Ellis， R.. 1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. N.Y.: Oxford University Press.

【2】Lado， R. 1957. Linguistics across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers. MI: University of Michigan Press.

【3】 李伯利. 語言的負(fù)遷移現(xiàn)象與中國式英語的產(chǎn)生 [J]. 《重慶工商大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)》，第1期. 2005.

【4】 文秋芳. 《英語口語測試與教學(xué)》[M]. 上海：上海外語教育出版社. 1999.

(余娜:（1986-），女，陜西西安人，陜西師范大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院2009級(jí)全日制教育碩士研究生，研究方向英語學(xué)科教學(xué))