How Dialects of Chinese Language Influence L1-Speakers’ Phonological and Phonetic Acquisition of English
Abstract
There have been many studies concerning Chinese dialects’ influence on the learning of English sounds. However, it is widely believed that Chinese dialect speakers always face greater difficulties when learning English than Mandarin speakers, which is rebutted through this research, to some degree. The study tests the English repeating ability of speakers native to Wenzhou Wu, a dialect with a significant difference, and native to Tianjin Mandarin, which is very similar to Putonghua. The study compares the phonology of these two dialects and English and assumes that both of these dialects influence the acquisition of certain sounds of English. L1 speakers of these two dialects, who have not been exposed to English before, are asked to repeat the recording of English words, and through phonetic analysis of the material, we can find the difference in these candidates’ ability to acquire these sounds. The results show that the two branches of the Chinese language are found to both facilitate and obstacle native speakers’ SLA in different aspects.
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