中国学习者英语音系范畴的习得难度及可学性

Acquisition Difficulties and Learnability of English Phonological Categories by Chinese Learners

摘要: 本文考察中级学习者英语语音常见偏误的习得难度以及不同音系范畴的可学性。来自国内某高校英语专业二年级65名学生参加诊断性朗读测试，由3名英语母语者和2名国内英语教师评分，归纳常见的语音偏误类型为词首辅音(/b, l, n, p, r, v, w/)、部分元音(/ɒ, æ, e, ɛ, i, ɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, aʊ/)、词首辅音连缀(/gr-/, /fr-/, /str-/, /br-/)、词尾辅音(/-s/, /-t/, /-k/)。随后，受试随机分为三组，第1组接受4次针对性的大班教学干预，第2组接受4次大班和7次小班干预，第3组(控制组)不接受干预。前后测试结果显示，受试总体上都表现出显著进步，第2组进步最大，第3组进步最小。这表明学习者在正常的学习环境下可以获得自然进步，但具有针对性的教学干预更能促其进步。各音系范畴的习得难度由易到难的顺序为：词首辅音连缀 < 部分元音 < 词尾辅音 < 词首辅音。

Abstract: The present study examines the degree of difficulties and learnability of some commonly seen problematic English phonetic categories by Chinese EFL intermediate learners. Altogether 65 so-phomores of English major were recruited as participants in a diagnostic reading aloud pretest, from which the following deviation of phonological categories was identified by 5 evaluators (3 English native speakers and 2 Chinese teachers of English): initial consonants (/b, l, n, p, r, v, w/), selected vowels (/ɒ, æ, e, ɛ, i, ɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, aʊ/), 4 onset clusters (/gr-/, /fr-/, /str-/, /br-/) and 3 final consonants (/-s/, /-t/, /-k/). Participants were then randomly divided into 3 groups, with Group 1 receiving 4 sessions of large class instruction on pronunciation, Group 2 receiving 4 sessions of large class instruction plus 7 weeks of small class tutoring, and Group 3 (control group) receiving no instruction. All the interventions were designed based on the identified pronunciation errors above and provided by the 5 evaluators. The result shows that all the three groups demonstrated a significant progress as a whole, among which Group 2 shows the greatest progress and Group 3 the least progress. We conclude that intermediate learners’ L2 performance errors can be improved naturally; a greater improvement has been observed with teachers’ explicit help; the order of acquisition difficulties might be as follows: onset clusters < selected vowels < final consonants < initial consonants.