初一学生英语语音能力现状调查及策略

本文通过对初一学生的语音测试，调查了初一学生语音能力的现状。此外，作者还通过问卷调查和访谈的方式探讨了影响学生发音能力的因素。在此基础上，提出了改变学生语音能力现状的几点对策。

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background
1.1.1 Significance of English Pronunciation Learning
Language is generally comprised of three indispensable elements: pronunciation,grammar, and vocabulary. Vocabulary is the component of language, while grammar isthe structure of language. Pronunciation is the outer layer of speech. It is themanifestation of the existence of grammar and vocabulary.
English phonetician Gimson (1970) said: “to learn a language, people only needto master 50%-90% of grammar and 1% of the vocabulary, but they must master 100%of pronunciation knowledge.” From this view, pronunciation is an essential aspect oflearning a language and indispensable to English learning. The knowledge ofpronunciation will help students improvetheir verbal expressionability,thus enhancingtheir interests and motivation in speaking English. In addition, fluent Englishpronunciation can effectively build up students’ learning confidence and self-satisfaction to further their English competence.
1.1.2 Requirements of English Curriculum Standards forCompulsory Education
As globalization advance, English teaching in the compulsory education has beendrawn more attention. It focuses on foster talents with creative competence andintercultural communication competence. In the English curriculum standards forcompulsory education (2011 Edition), English teaching aims to develop students’integrated language proficiency and improve their humane accomplishment. Thecurriculum standards emphasize the dual nature of language as a tool and humanity.Moreover, the level of students’ pronunciation competence is clearly defined: thepronunciation competence of Grade one students in junior high schools should meet theLevel 2 requirements of pronunciation goal in the curriculum standards. For example,to read 26 English letters correctly, understand the simple spelling rules, understand thestress of words and sentences, to understand English phonetics, including liaison,rhythm, pause, intonation, etc. Thus, the curriculum standards emphasize the critical ofEnglish pronunciation teaching in junior high schools.
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1.2 Purpose of the Thesis
Hu Zhuanglin (2006) pointed out in Language course: “pronunciation is a way tocommunicate language.” Language is a phonetic symbol system, and it exists earlierthanthelanguage.Therefore,pronunciation learningis thepriority in languagelearning.Pronunciation competence plays a vital role in language learning. It can help studentsto form comprehensive language ability and lay a good foundation for languagecommunication.
According to the literature research and discoveries in the practice process, mostjunior high school students have some pronunciation problems, which cannot meetstudents’ pronunciation competence requirements in the compulsory education stage.
This study will explore students’ current pronunciation competence in Grade oneof junior high schools by pronunciation testing. Through questionnaires and interviewsto determine what factors will affect students’ pronunciation competence. These resultsprovide resolutions for further pronunciation teaching and use the case study to verifyits practicability.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Key Terms
2.1.1 Pronunciation
Pronunciation, the material shell of language, is the material basis of language andthe symbol system that directly records people’s thinking activities. Many scholarsmake definitions for pronunciation. Some of them think pronunciation is a way to makesounds. Richards and Richard (2002) thought of pronunciation as the method ofproducing sounds. Cook defined pronunciation as the way to make English sounds(Gilakjani 2016). Yates (2009) thought pronunciation was the production of sounds thatare used for making meaning. Furthermore, some scholars believe that pronunciation isa system that includes the knowledge and phenomenon of pronunciation. Kingston(2007) pointed out: “pronunciation system is connected with phonology in three ways:definition, explanation, and implementation.” Pronunciation is a kind of pronunciationsystem, which will not interfere with the communication between the speaker and thelistener (Paulston&Burder 1976). Martha and Pamela (2019), in their book EnglishPronunciation Teaching and Research, defined pronunciation includes learning topronounce and identifying the inpidual elements or phonemes that make up theconsonant and vowel system of a language.
Some scholars in China also provide different definitions of pronunciation. Forexample, Ma Qiuwu and Zhao Yonggang (2017) pointed out that pronunciation wasjust a material embodiment of the concept of phonological symbols and a linguisticsbranch that studied how humans make and perceive sounds, or sign languages, theequivalent aspects of sign. Moreover, Zhao Zhongde (2006) said pronunciation wasmainly composed of pitch, intensity, length, and timbre. In English, the four elementscorrespond to phoneme, rhythm, intonation, and stress. According to these definitions,pronunciation in this paper can be seen as a form of language expression. It includesthe phonetic symbols and all the phenomena of pronunciation that appear in junior highschools’ English learning.
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2.2 Research on English Pronunciation CompetenceAbroadand at Home
2.2.1 Relevant Research on English Pronunciation CompetenceAbroad
Many scholars have done relevant research on the influence of pronunciationcompetence on English learning. Morley (1991) believed that pronunciationcompetence was an indispensable part of communicative competence, andpronunciation teaching should become the primary language teaching task. Only byproviding students with enough pronunciation knowledge can learners’ pronunciationcompetence be improved. Beckman and Edwards (2000) found that as students’vocabulary increases, pronunciation teaching can provide a foundation for developingan increasing knowledge of contextual variants and the abstracts phonologicalcategories. Pronunciation competence can help students learn vocabulary in differentlinguistic contexts. Koda (2007) concluded from his research that phonologicaldecoding was necessary for reading acquisition and comprehension in all languages. Itwas highlightedthat students’pronunciation competence would affect students’readingefficiency. Varonis and Gass (1982) examined the factors affecting native speakers’listening competence. The results showed the interaction between pronunciation andgrammar, and the pronunciation with an accent will affect the comprehensibility of thelanguage. According to the study, pronunciation competence can affect listeningcomprehension competence. Therefore, the first task of language learning is to acquirepronunciation. Flege (1984) found that untrained listeners could only recognize someshortwordsandphrases expressedbynonnativespeakers.However,thetrainedlearnerscan perform better than untrained learners. It is essential to train the students’pronunciation competence, which can help students communicate better and recognizepronunciation with accent better. Otlowski’s (1998) research showed that equalopportunities should be given for communication when teaching pronunciation. Onlyin this way, learners’ pronunciation competence can be improved. English teachingshould pay attention to the teaching of pronunciation knowledge and provide learnerswith equal opportunities for practice at the same time. According to these researches,learners’ pronunciation competence can affect their vocabulary, reading, and listeninglearning. In English teaching, pronunciation teaching should be put in the first place.Moreover, learners’ pronunciation competence plays a significant role in Englishlearning.

Table 3.1 Question Classification in the Questionnaire

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Chapter Three Research Methodology ....................... 17
3.1 Research Questions ...............................17
3.2 Participants........................................17
Chapter Four Results and Discussion .......................... 21
4.1 Results andAnalysis of Students’English Pronunciation Competence.....21
4.1.1 Results andAnalysis of Testing Points in Words and Phrases.........22
4.1.2 Results andAnalysis of Testing Points in Sentences and Story.......28
Chapter Five Conclusion ...................... 45
5.1 Major Findings.................................45
5.2 Implications and Limitations...................46

Chapter Four Results and Discussion

4.1 Results and Analysis of Students’English PronunciationCompetence

Table 4.1 Scores for the Components in Pronunciation Testing

This table shows that the scores of students’pronunciation tests. Four parts of thetest investigate students’ pronunciation competence from words, phrases, sentences,and story.This table shows that students do well in words’pronunciation, but they can’tpronouncethephrases, sentences, andstorywith thecorrect pronunciation.Theaveragescore of the test is 57.83, which shows that there are still some problems in students’pronunciation competence, and half of them have not fully mastered the pronunciationknowledge involved in the test.
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Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings
This thesis investigated the current state of students’pronunciation competence inGrade one of junior high school by pronunciation test. Moreover, the author usedquestionnaires and interview to explore factors that will affect students’pronunciationcompetence. Furthermore, based on these results, the author provides severalresolutions to change the current state of students’ pronunciation competence. Themajor findings can be summarized as followed:
Through the pronunciation test results, the author can find the current state ofstudents’ pronunciation competence. Students’ pronunciation competence did notultimately reach the goal of Level 2 in curriculum standard. For example, studentscannot pronounce the vowels in open and closed syllables, and some vowel clusterssuch as “oo” “ea” and consonant clusters “th”, “ch” correctly. And some of them areunaware of the phenomenon of stress, liaison, loss of plosion in words and phrases, andthe different intonations represent the different meanings in the same sentence. Inaddition, most students could not use simple spelling rules to read words and unfamiliarwith irregular spelling.
According to the results of questionnaires, students held a positive attitude topronunciation learning. However, most of them lack pronunciation knowledge, andtheir learning method varies, but some methods are wrong. According to thequestionnaire, students’views on teachers’pronunciation teaching were being collected.Teachers always use the textbook to teach pronunciation, and their teaching method isvery simple. According to recordings of interviews, most teachers spend less than anhourteachingpronunciationinaunit.Theirteachingkeypointfocusesonthesegmentalphonemes. Most of them use leading reading to practice students’ pronunciation. Andteachers always point out students’incorrect pronunciation directly in class.Accordingto these results, students’ pronunciation knowledge, learning methods, and teachers’teaching content, methods, key point, and evaluation methods will affect students’pronunciation competence.
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