Analysis of pronunciation errors of ten Chinese undergraduate freshmen - a case study of Jianghan University, Wuhan, China

Abstract

This research was aimed at discovering pronunciation errors Chinese EFL learners commit. To do this, a qualitative study was conducted on the pronunciation errors of 10 undergraduate freshmen of Jianghan University. The data collected and used for the analysis comprised those gathered through interview, reading exercise, and observation. Errors related to segmental and suprasegmental features were identified. They include consonantal and vowel errors in addition to stress, intonational, and connected speech errors. Specifically, there were errors of substitution, omission, and addition of certain sounds. Among them, substitution errors recorded the highest frequency. Based on the findings, the causes of errors in the learners’ pronunciation were also identified. The main cause was absence of certain English sounds in their L1 phonetic system coupled with inadequate environment for the L2. Some suggestions are made particularly to stakeholders to increase the frequency of English learning from the tender age.