Chapter One: Introduction
1.1Study Background
Language transfer theory mainly has two kinds of forms: one is positive transfer, and theother is negative transfer. The positive transfer means the common of the target language andthe mother tongue which will promote the second language learning and accelerate targetlanguage learning through inter-language. Negative transfer means mother tongueinterference. Mother tongue interference will cause errors, extend the learners’ time of makingmistakes and delay the speed of learning target language through the inter-language. The mostobviously part of negative transfer is the part of pronunciations. Chinese syllable is the unityof sound, rhyme and tone, thus syllabic itself is one of the clearest speech. So it is not easy tojoin the neighbor syllable. That means Chinese is the staccato sound. Whereas Englishsyllable is a clear spelling course of vowels and consonants. In the flow of speech, the finalconsonant of the word is easy to split up with the first vowel of the next word, thereforeEnglish is legato sound. In oral English, liaison is very common, we usually speak Englishwith stressed and unstressed words together in the same sense group, and that is to say, thereis no gap between word and word. During the learning process of English speech, Englishlearners usually pay more attention to the pronunciation of words for the unit, but they ignorethe pronunciation of phrases and sentences for unit in the normal speed. Because English islegato sound, there is no clear piding line between syllables, and sounds of the words areconnected to the end. The change of the sounds is often a natural phenomenon in thiscontinuity of the language. And Chinese is staccato sound; there is no stress concept in flowof words. And Chinese requires clear pronunciation of each word. Because of the lack ofliaison practicing, we speak English with words for the unit. Using this isolated pronunciation,we speak English with a strong Chinese accent. In listening, because only emphasizing orgoing to transfer important message can native speaker stress, and the rest of the words ignore.
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1.2Research Questions
This thesis aims to solve the following questions: Firstly, whether The EnglishFour-in-One Teaching Approach can improve pupils’ level of English word-to-word liaison?Secondly, what kind of word-to-word liaison can improve fastest and best? Thirdly, how touse The English Four-in-One Teaching Approach? In this study, The English Four-in-One Teaching Approach will be employed toinvestigate its influence on English words-to-words liaison in Chinese primary school. The English Four-in-One Teaching Approach is the latest achievements created by Professor BaoTianren basing on the contemporary linguistics theories. “It was created in the process ofEnglish teaching in middle school connected with English teaching conditions in China. Theessence of this theory lies in its original teaching mode and teaching target setting. The fourmain teaching modes of The English Four-in-One Teaching Approach are: Classroomteaching, out-of-class study, daily revision and Exam preparation. The teaching aims can besaid KSAF, K stands for knowledge, S stands for skills, A stands for abilities, F stands forfaculty. In this pyramid, it bases on language knowledge, and then to language skills and thento language ability, and at last to the highest state of language learning－language faculty.
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Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1 Introduction about English Word-to-Word Liaison
The so-called discourse coherence means “the oral language spoken out in normalstatements and dialogues.” (Crystal 1985:66). In coherent words, the speakers do notpronounce sound by sound, or word by word, but pronounce a continuous a string of voice,forming the flow. During the development process of modern linguistics, linguists have hadmany speech studies, but most of the studies focus on the changes inside of the word, namelythe diachronic study. In fact, during the process of learning English, we should not onlypronounce every inpidual word well, but also pay attention to the sound between words andwords. Palmer had said that “there is a common but important phenomenon in language that isit is difficult to pronounce a string of sound quickly. And in order to save effort, speakersalways put the pronunciation action to the absolute minimum.” (L.R. Palmer 1983:24)In many thesis of China about English word-to-word liaison, many scholars do not giveus a clear definition of word-to-word liaison. One scholar named Zhang Desheng said“English word-to-word liaison is that the tail word ended with consonant and the next wordstarted with /j/, these two words can read in a liaison way in English”. (Zhang: 41) In ChangNing’s thesis, he just gives us some kinds of English word-to-word liaison, but he does notgive us a clear idea or definition of English word-to-word liaison. (Chang: 42-44)
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2.2 Theoretical Foundation of the Present Study
2.2.1 The Introduction of the English Four-in-One Teaching Approach
The English Four-in-One Teaching Approach is created by Professor Bao Tianren(2004:23-30). It is an approach but not a method which is taken from abroad directlyor not exactly a native Chinese teaching approach. It learns from the foreign advancedteaching concept, teaching theory and teaching methods, and at the same time, it absorbs andinherits many Chinese teaching ideas and the essence of many teaching schools, forming thisforeign language teaching approach at last. “Four in The English Four-in-One TeachingApproach refers to knowledge, skills, abilities and faculty. One in it means making knowledge,skills, abilities and faculty together.” “The features of The English Four-in-One TeachingApproach can summarize that: knowledge-based, learning-centered, quality-oriented andfaculty-aimed. We can use a chart to explain it.”(Li 2008:12-16)
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Chapter Three: Investigation on Current English Word-to-Word ..... 14
3.1.1 Participants........ 14
3.1.2 Tools for Investigation ........ 14
3.1.3 Data Collection and Analysis.... 15
3.2 Results and Discussions ....... 15
3.2.1 Primary School Learners’ Attitudes towards English …………
3.2.2 English Word-to-Word Liaison Learning Methods Used…………
3.3 Conclusion and Implications...... 18
Chapter Four: A Study on Whether English Four-in-One Teachingn ...... 20
4.1 Purposes of the Experiment........ 20
4.2 Participants......... 20
4.3 Materials ..... 21
4.4 Instruments and Procedures ....... 23
4.5 Tests on English Word-to-Word Liaison of Primary School Learners........ 24
Chapter Five: Results and Discussion of Whether the English …………26
5.1 Results and Analysis of Findings..... 27
5.1.1 Findings from the Pre-test......... 27
5.1.2 Findings from the Post Test ...... 27
5.2 Analysis of the Kinds of Word-to-Word Liaison..... 29
Chapter Five: Results and Discussion of Whether the EnglishFour-in-One Teaching Approach Can Improve the Primary SchoolLearners’ Level of Word-to-Word Liaison
5.1 Results and Analysis of Findings
Although the participants never receive word-to-word liaison test and any relatedtraining, their attitudes towards word-to-word liaison are serious, because everyone tried theirbest to read the phrases as serious as they can. The knowledge about word-to-word liaisonthey have is little. They do not know what word-to-word liaison is, how many kinds ofword-to-word liaison, how to pide the phrases into the right groups, and how to read thephrases correctly. Looking from the different kinds of word-to-word liaison, all theparticipants did well in one kind of word-to-word liaison－liaison of consonants and vowels,they might read these phrases unconsciousness by using word-to-word liaison knowledge.Relatively lower marks are shown in other kinds of word-to-word liaison, for the lack ofword-to-word liaison knowledge, and the participants wanted to read better to get higher mark,the pronunciations are variable and strange.From this pre-test we found that those primary school learners did not have a systematiclearning approach to learn English word-to-word liaison; they read the phrases just as basedtheir own thinking and understanding. And their ways of pronunciation can’t get rid of theinfluence of Chinese, for they are used to speaking in their native language. And a systematicand effective learning approach still needs to be explored to help smooth the obstacles inword-to-word liaison learning.
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Conclusion
The English word-to-word liaison is ignored in primary school. And there isn't aneffective approach to teach word-to-word liaison in primary school. Firstly, with consistentword-to-word liaison input and trainings, the participants in post test have betterunderstanding than in the pre-test. The participants can know what word-to-word liaison is,and the main kinds of word-to-word liaison. All kinds of word-to-word liaison improve formost participants. That is to say, using the English Four-in-One Teaching Approach canimprove the primary school learners’ level of word-to-word liaison. What' more, theparticipants learnt an effective way to learn English word-to-word liaison, this is good forthem to learn English in the future, at the same time, learning word-to-word liaison canimprove their oral English. Secondly, in this research, we have the conclusions that the kindof r,re-vowel improves fattest. Thirdly, using the English Four-in-One Teaching Approach, weneed the parents’ help to supervise the participants finish homework, and during the class, theparticipants need to follow the teacher’s steps.
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