The Negative Transfer of Shaanxi Dialect on the Acquisition of English Sounds

Abstract：In the process of learning English as the second language，our native language now plays an irresistible role.One is positive transfer and another is negative transfer.In this article，through the contrastive analysis of Shaanxi dialect and English sounds，the author mainly studies the negative transfer of some pronunciations of Shaanxi dialect in second language acquisition.And in the last part of the article，the author gives some suggestions to help leaner who speaks Shaanxi dialect to master the English pronunciation.

Keywords：second language acquisition；Shaanxi dialect；negative transfer

Introduction

Whether the articulation is right or wrong makes great influence on the result of communication.Therefore，establishing a good articulating system is very important.In the process of learning English as the second language，there are many elements to lead problematic sounds.Among them，the first language，especially the dialect，plays an irresistible role.The role of the first language includes two aspects――One is positive transfer and another is negative transfer.The latter makes more influence on the second language acquisition.As for an English teacher of Shaanxi province，the author finds many problematic sounds from my students are caused by the negative transfer of Shaanxi dialect.So in this article，the author takes some common problematic sounds for example，analyzes their reasons and tries to finds some ways to help students who speak Shaanxi dialect to master the English pronunciation.

Ⅰ.The role of the first language in second language acquisition

It is a popular belief that second language acquisition（SLA）is strongly influenced by the learners first language（L1）.The clearest support for this belief comes from ‘foreign’ accents in the second language（L2）.The role of the L1 in SLA includes two aspects：negative transfer and positive transfer.If the L1 and L2 were similar，the L1 would actively aid or facilitate L2 learning.This is called ‘positive transfer’.Whereas the L1 gets in the way or interferes with the learning of the L2，such as the features of the L1 are transferred into the L2.This is called ‘negative transfer’.In the process of learning the second language，speakers often replace the right English sounds with the similarity in their native language unconsciously.Thus，the errors occur.English and Chinese are two different languages.Their sound systems have something in common.However，they are very different in pronunciation.Since Shaanxi pronunciation has become part of their life，they may make negative transfer when they meet a sound.

Ⅱ.The negative transfer of Shaanxi dialect and its reasons

Dialect is a regional variant of a language distinguished by minimal lexical，grammatical，or phonological differences from variants of the same language.It is spoken by a particular geographical area or by members of a particular social class or occupational group.Shaanxi dialect is only one of branches in Chinese dialects.In general，Shaanxi dialect is attached to north dialect in China.It is made up of 3 parts，northern Shaanxi dialect，guanzhong dialect and southern Shaanxi dialect.Nevertheless，Shaanxi dialect succeeds the characteristic of Chinese sound，but has its own specificity.So it has different influence on English sounds learning.

First of all，because students cannot master the knowledge about articulatory phonetics，such as the place of articulation and manner of articulation，they always try to make sounds by their accustomed articulated patterns，or they take a similar sound just as the same one.For example，there are no dentals /θ/ and /e/ in Shaanxi dialect.So when students learn these two phones，they use the similar ones /s/ and /z/ which are existed in Chinese sound to replace.Thus，we can find that students pronounce thank /θk/ as /sk/，pronounce they /eei/ as /zei/.

Secondly，students are likely to add some phones when they pronounce a word.To Shaanxi students，they are hard to distinct stops /p/，/ b/，/t/，/d/，/k/，/g/ in English sounds with b，p，t，d，k，g in Chinese sounds.So when these phones stay at the end of a word in English，students naturally add // or /u/ on them.For example，they speak“right”“map”and“should”as /rait/，/mpu /，and /ud /instead of /rait/，/mp/，and /ud/.This can be recognized as a spoken habit.Another reason is that most shaanxi people prefer to use the fourth tone in Chinese four tones.They like to end a word or a sentence with stress tone.For example，when they say“起来”/qǐlái/，they will say“qì li”.This pronunciation habit transfers to English sounds and causes some misunderstanding.

Finally，in some places of Guanzhong area of Shaanxi，some people cant distinguish /u/ and /u/ in their dialect.They read“堵”/du/ as /dou/，“路”/lu/ as /lou/.So this pronunciation habit is used in English learning.Its easy to find that students pronounce/u/instead of /u/.For example，they pronounce look /luk/ as/luk/，good /ud/ as /ud/.Another situation happens in the north of Shaanxi，students cannot make the difference between /n/ and //.Because people there have strong nasals，they say“门”/men/ as /meng/，“人”/ren/ as /reng/ in Chinese.Thus，the negative transfer happens when they speak English.For example，they speak in/in/ as /i/，tend/ tend/ as /ted/.

Ⅲ.The way of solving

According to contrastive analysis above，we can see that Shaanxi dialect has big negative transfer to English sounds.It will cause a lot of confusion when students speak English to communicate with each other.Therefore，it is necessary to take some treasures to weaken or get rid of negative transfer which is caused by their dialect in second language acquisition.

3.1 To learn the right sounds by the joint efforts of teachers and students.

On the one hand，the teachers should have good pronunciation.Only if the teachers pronounce correctly will the students learn it correctly.On the other hand，students should try their best to learn right pronunciation by listening to standard English songs or watching English movies.Learning right pronunciation needs their joint efforts.

3.2 To analyze the differences of their dialect and of English phonemes.

There is a saying in china，“Knows it however