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【Abstract】The paper mainly demonstrates some pronunciation errors among middle school students， especially the first grade junior students in Xi’an Gaoxin Dier School， when learning English and analyzes the reasons by comparing Xi’an dialect and English with language transfer， articulatory phonetics as theoretical basis. At last， the paper gives some counter methods to facilitate the students learning in English pronunciation and further improve their oral English.
【Key words】negative transfer； Xi’an dialect； English pronunciation
1. Introduction
English as a language， its pronunciation is an important medium to achieve the communication function. The wrong or nonstandard pronunciation directly affects the English learners listening and oral competence， and further influence the communication process. For Chinese students， they speak local dialect mostly in their daily life. When learning English， their local dialect has a deep influence， especially the pronunciation. During teaching， we English teachers find that students always make some pronunciation errors due to the negative transfer of Xi’an dialect. The paper analyzes the problematic pronunciation theoretically and gives some suggestions to make students learn English pronunciation easily and correctly.
2. Theoretical Basis
2.1 Language transfer
Transfer， the term was originally derived from the Latin word ‘transfer’ and the meaning of it is ‘to bear， to print to impress or to copy from one language to another’ （Webster Third New World International Dictionary， 1986）. Later， the developed meaning is used in linguistics. Transfer is a traditional term from psychology of learning which means imposition of previously learned patterns onto a new learning situation.（Ludmila， 2005） It is a popular belief that the mother tongue can have a facilitation or inhibition effect during the process of second language learning. ‘Foreign’ accents in the second language learners’ speech well support the belief. For example， when a Frenchman speaks English， it sounds French. The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis （Lado， 1957） attempted to describe language transfer in second language acquisition based on the similarities and differences between the first language and the second language. If there are many similarities between the two languages， the first language will give rise to second language learning. If there are great differences， the first language gets in the way or interferes with the learning of second language. Usually， the facilitation effect is known as positive transfer， while inhibition effect as negative transfer. 2.2 Xi’an dialect
People of different parts in China speak different dialect， and there are four frequently heard dialects， which are respectively Mandarin， Wu， Min and Yue . Xi’an， the capital city of Shaanxi， played many essential roles in politics and culture in ancient times. It was ever the capital of four dynasties， Zhou， Qin， Han and Tang dynasty. And the status of Xi’an dialect has been established during those periods. Although Major Xi’an dialect belongs to Guanzhong region， it includes native Xi’an dialect， Xi’an dialect spoken by Hui people and Xi’an dialect with Henan accent because of the migrants.
2.3 Articulatory Phonetics
The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds is called Phonetics， while articulatory phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made or articulated. （The study of language， P41） And among the sounds in English， some are constants and some are vowels. According to A. C. Gimson （1970） in English， there are 24 constants， 20 vowels in English and （/ts/ /tr/ /dz/ and /dr/ is defined as constants clusters but not phonemes. In articulatory phonetics， constants can be classified by place of articulation and manner of articulation. According to the place of articulation， sounds produced at the lips are labials， at the alveolar ridge are alveolars， at the palate are palatals， and at the velum are velars. In terms of manner of articulation， constants can be divided as stops， fricatives， affricatives， nasals， approximants and etc. Constants are usually articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract， while vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. And there are 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs. The pronunciation of the monophthongs is depended on the place of the tongue in the oral cavity， the opening extent of the gum and the lip shape， while the diphthongs always need glide when pronouncing. For the description of vowel sounds， the tongue is divided into 3 general sections， font， mid and back. In the articulatory phonetics， the articulation of vowels can be classified as （1） high vs. low； （2） front vs. back； （3） long vs. short； （4） round vs. un-round； （5）glide vs. non-glide. For instance， /u： / is a high， back， long and round sound.
3. Problematic English Pronunciation
【Key words】negative transfer； Xi’an dialect； English pronunciation
1. Introduction
English as a language， its pronunciation is an important medium to achieve the communication function. The wrong or nonstandard pronunciation directly affects the English learners listening and oral competence， and further influence the communication process. For Chinese students， they speak local dialect mostly in their daily life. When learning English， their local dialect has a deep influence， especially the pronunciation. During teaching， we English teachers find that students always make some pronunciation errors due to the negative transfer of Xi’an dialect. The paper analyzes the problematic pronunciation theoretically and gives some suggestions to make students learn English pronunciation easily and correctly.
2. Theoretical Basis
2.1 Language transfer
Transfer， the term was originally derived from the Latin word ‘transfer’ and the meaning of it is ‘to bear， to print to impress or to copy from one language to another’ （Webster Third New World International Dictionary， 1986）. Later， the developed meaning is used in linguistics. Transfer is a traditional term from psychology of learning which means imposition of previously learned patterns onto a new learning situation.（Ludmila， 2005） It is a popular belief that the mother tongue can have a facilitation or inhibition effect during the process of second language learning. ‘Foreign’ accents in the second language learners’ speech well support the belief. For example， when a Frenchman speaks English， it sounds French. The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis （Lado， 1957） attempted to describe language transfer in second language acquisition based on the similarities and differences between the first language and the second language. If there are many similarities between the two languages， the first language will give rise to second language learning. If there are great differences， the first language gets in the way or interferes with the learning of second language. Usually， the facilitation effect is known as positive transfer， while inhibition effect as negative transfer. 2.2 Xi’an dialect
People of different parts in China speak different dialect， and there are four frequently heard dialects， which are respectively Mandarin， Wu， Min and Yue . Xi’an， the capital city of Shaanxi， played many essential roles in politics and culture in ancient times. It was ever the capital of four dynasties， Zhou， Qin， Han and Tang dynasty. And the status of Xi’an dialect has been established during those periods. Although Major Xi’an dialect belongs to Guanzhong region， it includes native Xi’an dialect， Xi’an dialect spoken by Hui people and Xi’an dialect with Henan accent because of the migrants.
2.3 Articulatory Phonetics
The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds is called Phonetics， while articulatory phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made or articulated. （The study of language， P41） And among the sounds in English， some are constants and some are vowels. According to A. C. Gimson （1970） in English， there are 24 constants， 20 vowels in English and （/ts/ /tr/ /dz/ and /dr/ is defined as constants clusters but not phonemes. In articulatory phonetics， constants can be classified by place of articulation and manner of articulation. According to the place of articulation， sounds produced at the lips are labials， at the alveolar ridge are alveolars， at the palate are palatals， and at the velum are velars. In terms of manner of articulation， constants can be divided as stops， fricatives， affricatives， nasals， approximants and etc. Constants are usually articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract， while vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. And there are 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs. The pronunciation of the monophthongs is depended on the place of the tongue in the oral cavity， the opening extent of the gum and the lip shape， while the diphthongs always need glide when pronouncing. For the description of vowel sounds， the tongue is divided into 3 general sections， font， mid and back. In the articulatory phonetics， the articulation of vowels can be classified as （1） high vs. low； （2） front vs. back； （3） long vs. short； （4） round vs. un-round； （5）glide vs. non-glide. For instance， /u： / is a high， back， long and round sound.
3. Problematic English Pronunciation