The Negative Transfer of Chinese upon English Vowel Learning

【Abstract】Rod Ellis claims that no theory of L2 acquisition is complete without an account of L1 transfer，which arouses much interest of phonetic linguists to probe into the Transfer Theory. In this paper，the negative transfer of Chinese upon English vowel learning is dwelled upon. The author carries out the study by examining the recording of some Chinese natives，and with the help of the computer-based Praat analysis，the author comes to the conclusion that to a large extent，Chinese has exerted a negative influence upon English vowel learning in terms of English monophthongs and diphthongs，which may contribute to English teaching as L2 in China.

【Key words】 negative transfer； monophthong； diphthong

1. Introduction to the Transfer Theory

Psychologists have long-time been concerning the effects of one learning task on the subsequent one. “The observation that prior learning effects subsequent learning leads to the hypothesis of transfer， which Ellis refers to as ‘perhaps the single most important concept in the theory and practice of education’ ” . As for transfer， Ellis offers a definition： “the hypothesis that the learning of task A will affect the subsequent learning of task B.” In language study， task A and B can be replaced by two different languages that are learned subsequently. People tend to transfer the old habits in their already-learned languages to the new one. Thus if the newly-learned language has a sharply different structure， there would be a negative transfer.

2. Objectives of the Study

In the process of English learning， Chinese natives are surely to come across some obstacles on the way， resulting from the great differences between English and the mother tongue. It is widely acknowledged that Chinese people are very likely to produce “Chinglish”， which is manifested not only in lexicon， syntax， but more in pronunciation. The Chinese pay little attention to stress， pause and have great difficulty in learning liaison， which all lead to awkward sounds. Being aware of the differences between Chinese and English， the author hold the view that it is highly necessary to carry out a study on the negative transfer from Chinese to English in pronunciation. In this paper， under the guidance of Transfer Theory， the author probes into the foundation of all sounds―vowels， with the expectation to unveil the fundamental reasons for the difficulties Chinese natives encounter in English learning， so as to help promote Chinese people’s English pronunciation in L2 teaching.

3.Discussion about Chinese Vowels

Technically speaking， Chinese has no “vowel” and such components are referred to as finals. Accordingly， English has monophthongs and diphthongs， while Chinese has simple finals and compound finals. A detailed observation of this distinction led to the following discovery： first， English has both short vowels and long vowels， but Chinese does not； second， a few English diphthongs share much similarity with Chinese compound finals， such as [ei]， [ai]， [?u] and [au]， yet they sound not exactly the same， and the Chinese compound finals sound more like simple ones.

Even though in Chinese Pin Yin， there is no such long note as that in English phonetic symbols， does the Chinese language truly have no distinction between long and short vowels？ Whether the Chinese substitutes simple finals for compound ones？ With these doubts， the author chose a few words with four different tones in Chinese or bearing the Chinese compound finals. Two subjects who barely have any knowledge of English were tested. The vowel length was timed and the contour of vowel formants was carefully examined to answer the above questions. The time of simple finals with different tones is showed in the table （the upper is from a female， and the lower is from a male）：

According to the above result， on a broad basis， there is no sharp contrast among simple finals with different tones. Strictly speaking， however， one can still notice some fine distinctions among them， such as the finals with the second and fourth tones are likely to be shorter than those with the first and third tones. The author hereby made a guess that Chinese speakers also have some awareness of short and long vowels， yet not strong enough， and on the basis of the data， the time ratio of the short vowels to the long is between 1 to 2 and 3 to 4.

In view of the second doubt， the contour of the vowel formant was later examined. The contour of the formant of diphthongs was supposed to be varied， not an unchanged line with the same F1 and F2 all along. The observation verified the presupposition. Many a Chinese compound final display very much similar features with simple finals in terms of the contour of formant. Here are some examples：

（a） the formant of [ei] in “分配fēn pèi”

（b） the formant of [?u] in “演奏yǎn zòu”

Seeing the great similarity between Chinese compound finals and simple ones， the author could not help thinking of the Chinese influence upon English vowel learning， for in English， a few diphthongs are much the same as the Chinese ones in the perspective of sound and morphology. To test the transfer of Chinese influence， the author carried on the following experiment.