Abstract

The study investigated the impact of mother tongue on Chinese EFL learners’ English pronunciation in making connected speech, and the influence of pronunciation on listening comprehension. Fifty university students of English major were assigned to listen to 25 sentences which are spoken in normal speech and include different sound variations. For further analysis, they were required to read the sentences aloud and have their reading recorded in the meantime. The reading results indicated that the subjects’ performance of pronunciation in making connected speech was poor, negatively affected by their mother tongue. The equally disappointing results of the listening test denoted that the subjects’ performance of listening comprehension was positively correlated to their skills of pronunciation. Correspondingly, it is attested that negative transfer of mother tongue would lead to substandard pronunciation of English connected speech and unsatisfactory accomplishment of listening comprehension.

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