Common Pronunciation and
Grammar Errors Faced by
Chinese Speakers of English
Jane Coates
Pronunciation and Grammar Errors
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2 very different language families
Methods of learning:
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memorisation and rote learning are
very important for the basic written
units of Chinese: the characters
Chinese learners of English spend
more time on memorisation rather
than speaking and listening skills.
Pronunciation and Grammar Errors
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Sounds are the building blocks of
spoken language.
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Some English sounds do not
have matching Chinese sounds
and are hard to learn.
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Others sound like Chinese sounds but are
not identical in pronunciation and cause
confusion.
Difficult sounds
‘th’ sounds
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Trouble for many non-native speakers of
English
Resulting sounds are often z and s.
‘Thin’ may be pronounced ‘tin’, ‘fin’ or ‘sin’.
‘This’ may be pronounced ‘dis’ or ‘zis’
Describe and model where the tongue goes.
Move to paying attention to the sounds in
some real conversations. e.g. Interview
classmates with questions that require the th
sounds. What are you thinking about?
What are you thankful for?
Difficult sounds-th
Practice with minimal pairs
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think - sink
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thank - sank
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mouth - mouse
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faith – face
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these - seas
sees - seize
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that - sat
Practice with a tongue twister e.g.
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Those thirteen thin students sat in the classroom
thinking. Although the weather was changing and the
temperature sinking, they forgot their thick jackets.
What were those thirteen foolish students thinking?
Difficult sounds-th
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Use Jazz Chants to teach the correct sound
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Tooth, tooth, I have a toothache.
I have a toothache,
And a sore throat!
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Thursdays, Thursdays.
What do you do on Thursdays?
On Thursdays I often go to a football game.
Sounds
‘r’ ‘l ‘and ‘n’ sounds
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Difficult to distinguish between so ‘fried’
becomes ‘flied’
‘l’ in a final position is particularly difficult may be replaced by ‘r’ or simply dropped.
e.g. ‘bill’ may be pronounced ‘beer’ or’ bi’
‘n’ sound
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Absent from many Chinese dialects
therefore difficult to distinguish ‘night’ from
‘light’
Difficult sounds-L
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A Tongue Twister
A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
Said the flea, "Let us fly!"
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Difficult sounds-L
Tongue Twisters
You've no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light's light's a slight light,
And tonight's a night that's light.
When a night's light, like tonight's light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.
N and R sounds
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Which noise annoys an oyster most?
A noisy noise annoys an oyster most.
Round the rugged rock
The ragged rascal ran.
v and w
Z
‘v’ sound
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Absent from most Chinese dialects sometimes treated like w or f: ’invite’ may be
pronounced ‘inwite’; ‘live’ pronounced ‘lif’
‘z’ sound
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Absent from most Chinese dialects usual error is to substitute ‘s’: ‘rise’ may
become ‘rice’
V and w sounds
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Whether the weather be cold or
whether the weather be hot We'll be
together whatever the weather,
whether we like it or not.
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Which witch wished which wicked
wish?
Sounds
Final consonants
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These cause serious problems. As there are few final
consonants in the Chinese language, Chinese speakers of
English tend to either add an extra vowel at the end or to
drop the consonant.
Books becomes booksa
Initial consonant clusters-bl- cr- sm- sw
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These are lacking in Chinese. The common error is to insert a
slight vowel sound between the consonants pronouncing
‘spoon’ as ‘sipoon’.
vowels
Vowels-ai- ou- oa- oi- ue
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There are more vowel contrasts in English
There is no equivalent in Chinese for some
sounds
Hard to distinguish are: ‘eat’ and ‘it’, ‘bean’
and ‘bin’
‘fool’ and’ full’, ‘Luke’ and ‘look’, ‘snack’ and
‘snake’
Changing Sounds - Elision
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Native speakers speak very quickly!
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Sounds may be dropped!
This disappearance of sounds is known as elision.
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There are 2 sounds that are frequently dropped:
‘t’ and ‘d’
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e.g. you will hear the ’t’ in fact but not in ‘facts’ and you will
hear the ‘d’ in ‘land’ but not in ‘landlady’:
“My landlady bought a new handbag the other day”.
“I don’t know when they finished work yesterday”.
“Let’s face the facts. This Company is going bust quickly”.
Stress and intonation
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Stress and intonation are areas of difficulty.
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Most 2 syllable nouns have the stress on the first sound.
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Most 2 syllable verbs have the stress on the end sound.
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In some 3 syllable words and in most words of 4 syllables or
more there are 2 stressed syllables-one carries the main
stress and the other secondary stress:
ultimatum
investigation
determination
interfere
congratulations departure
Stress and intonation
Look at pairs of words and decide where
the main stress is in the first word and
if it stays the same in the second word:
photograph - photography
consult - consultant
estimate - estimation
refer - referral
Stress and intonation
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Syllable stress changes in a family’ of
words:
photograph, photo, photographer,
photography
record (noun) record (verb)
recording
sentiment sentimental
Stress and intonation
Contrastive stress
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This is when we stress a word very strongly especially when
we correct someone, e.g.
Here’s the cheese sandwich you wanted.
That’s wrong. I ordered a meat sandwich.
O.K. That’s two white coffees.
No. I always drink black coffee.
Did you buy that cotton shirt you were looking at?
No. I bought the silk shirt.
Key or new information is often stressed at
sentence level
“I’ll be arriving at ten at Heathrow because of a delay, so I’ll get
the
last train back to Leeds and be home late.”
Where did you go yesterday?
I was in Leeds yesterday.
When were you in Leeds?
I was in Leeds yesterday.
There was no-one in Leeds yesterday.
I was in Leeds yesterday.
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The stress changes because what is new is different in each
sentence.
Stress and intonation
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Customer: Have you got any frozen peas?
Shopkeeper: No. But we do have tinned peas.
Customer: No. I really need frozen peas.
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Stress can also be used for contrasting,
contradicting and disagreeing.
e.g. David Beckham is quite good really.
David Beckham isn’t good, he’s magnificent.
Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use
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Gender: Confusing ‘he’ and ‘she’.
The spoken forms of ‘he’ ‘she’ and ‘it’ are all the same in
Chinese. Chinese speakers find difficulty in applying the
rule consistently.
e.g. ‘She is a good Director. His films are very good.’
I’ve a brother and she’s working in a factor
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Tenses and Time
Chinese and English speakers express the concept of
time very differently.
e.g. ‘My brother left home since nine o’clock’.
I’ve seen her two days ago.
I found that the room is empty.
Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use
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Modals
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Communication in English requires polite forms of
instructions, invitations, requests and suggestions,
in which modals play a central role. If Chinese
speakers do not use modals then they may appear
to speak more formally-or even rudely.
‘Should’ is easy as it corresponds to a Chinese
modal. But in some sentences it’s use is more
difficult. e.g. ‘It’s strange that you should say this.’
e.g. ‘Can you do me a favour?’/Could you please do
me a favour? Would it be possible…..?
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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use
Articles
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There are no articles in Chinese and therefore Chinese
speakers find it hard to use them.
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They may omit the article:
‘Let’s make fire’, ‘I can play piano’. X
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Or insert unnecessary ones:
‘He finished the school last year’, ‘‘He was in a pain’. X
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Or confuse the use of the definite and indefinite articles:
‘She is a tallest girl in the class’ X
‘He smashed the vase in the anger’. X
Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use
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Countable and uncountable nouns
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The English concept of countability is hard to grasp.
For example, furniture, equipment, luggage, news
etc. can all be counted to the Chinese way of
understanding.
This leads to errors such as:
‘Let me tell you an interesting news.’
‘She as brought many luggages with her.
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Common Errors in Grammar and Word Use
Progressive aspect causes difficulty
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‘ What do you read?’ for ‘What are you reading?’
I sit here for a long time for- I have been sitting here for a long time.
Adjectives and verbs are frequently identical in Chinese.
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Thus the verb ‘to be’ tends to be dropped when followed by predicative
adjectives.
‘I busy’, ‘She very happy’.
I am busy. She is very happy.
Parts of speech
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Parts of speech in Chinese are not always formally distinguished. The same
word may often serve different structural functions. It is easy to confuse
related words such as ‘difficult’ and ‘difficulty’ in terms of their parts of speech
or to appreciate the fact that certain functions in a sentence can only be
fulfilled by words from certain classes:
‘She likes walk’, ‘It is very difficulty to convince him’.
I have not son.
Jane teaching her class
Different styles and
methods of teaching
Group activities
Class groups
The joy of teaching