English pronunciation error/problem analysis for Chinese students

This study aims to analyze English pronunciation errors of Chinese students and explore how identifying pronunciation errors can feed FLT. Previous research focuses on English pronunciation errors for Chinese students on the segmental level but little attention has been paid to the suprasegmental level. Instead, this study intends to investigate English pronunciation errors for Chinese students at both segmental and suprasegmental levels. The participants for this study were 20 Chinese undergraduates. They read English minimal pairs, words, sentences and short paragraphs presented to them in a piece of paper. Pronunciation errors/problems were identified and frequency and distributions of the errors were obtained. It has been found that the common English pronunciation errors Chinese students made lie in those sounds lacking in Chinese such as vowels /æ/, /i/, consonants like dark /l/ and interdental sounds. The findings also indicate Chinese students have problems with those sounds similar but not identical to their Chinese counterparts. Chinese has no consonant clusters and sometimes Chinese students insert a vowel between two English consonants to break such clusters. This study reveals that largely due to L1 influences, Chinese students often make errors on the English suprasegmental level as well such as rhythm and intonation.