【今天继续转载BBC谈中国人的英语口音的节目之二“语流篇”，附上音频】

 

 

 

Insert (Wang Fei reads after his English teacher)
123…
Question and Answer of the Week:
People say that Chinese learners of English are more likely to speak English with a Chinese accent.I would like to find out what these specific syllables are…

 

Alice: Welcome to Question and Answer of the Week. I'm Alice Castle. Today we continue to answer Clare's question about Chinese learners' English accents. But Wang Fei is still practising his pronunciation with his English trainer.He's been working hard to see if there're any improvements he can make on his accent.

Wang Fei: (Opens the door) Hello! Hello Alice. Hello. 大家好，我是王飞。I've just
finished my class.

 

Alice: Good timing! How is it going?

 

Wang Fei: It's very good. I've found out about a few pronunciation problems I had
neglected before.

 

Alice: Good. What are they?

 

Wang Fei: My English trainer noticed that I sometimes drop some sounds while I am
speaking quickly. 我的英文老师说， 我说英语快的时候， 就会吞掉一些音。

 

Alice: Oh. When I was in China I sometimes noticed that Chinese learners of English drop some sounds when they are speaking. For example, 'media coverage', they might say 'media covrage' or 'media courage'.

 

Wang Fei: Exactly. This is also my problem. Let's hear from Frances Cox. She is my English language trainer working for the BBC World Service.

 

Insert

Frances: I'll give you one example. When somebody is learning English, what's the word
we might use for that, beginning with s? We could say they are…?

 

Wang Fei: Studying.

 

Frances: OK, now I say studying.

 

Wang Fei: Studying.

 

Frances: In the middle there's an 'i' sound. Studying.

 

Wang Fei: Studying.

 

Frances: And another one I think you sometimes make is 'understanding'.

 

Wang Fei: Understanding.

 

Frances: Understanding.

 

Wang Fei: Understanding.

 

Frances: Good; OK

 

Wang Fei: Sometimes I drop the 'er' – under.

 

Alice: Frances pointed out two words Wang Fei needs to pay attention to. One is
'studying'. People sometimes drop an 'i' while they're speaking.

 

Wang Fei: 是的。我以前会读成studding. 听起来好像区别很小，但是意思完全不一样了。

 

Alice: Another example is 'understanding'. People sometimes drop the 'er' sound in the word, so it sounds like 'undstanding'.

 

Wang Fei: 是这样的。英语的单词很多都是多音节的，所以我们中国的英语学习者要注意英语发
音的这种细微差别， 在说英语的时候， 不要把一些音或者音节吞掉了。

Alice: Interestingly enough, Jim Hitch, an experienced English teacher in London,
found that many of his Chinese students often add some extra sounds into the words. Let's hear what he says.

 

Insert
In English we have what we call 'consonant clusters'. So we have groups of consonants
that come together; whereas in many languages a syllable is based on a consonantvowel
pair sound, whereas we have all these sounds together. So, for example: 'crisps'.
Now saying the s-p-s at the end, crisps, is very difficult for a Chinese learner, as it is, again, for a Spanish person and many others. I think they would say something like 'crispe-s', they would add an extra vowel in there. And it's the same with a simple word like 'spoon'. At the beginning we have a 's-p' and a Chinese learner would be much more likely to say 'ser-poon', because they would put an extra sound between the s and the p,as an extra syllable.

 

Alice: Jim mentioned a very interesting term in his interview, consonant clusters.

 

Wang Fei: Consonant clusters 辅音群，就是两个或者三个以上的辅音连在一起。

Alice: Consonant clusters are very common in English but not in Chinese. Chinese
is based on consonant-vowel pair sound.

 

Wang Fei: 汉语中没有辅音群。我们汉语中都是辅音和元音成对儿出现的。

 

Alice: So some Chinese learners tend to add vowel sounds, especially 'er' between consonants. For example, 'Crisps' in English might become 'c-er-ris-er-pers'.

 

Wang Fei: 是的。 因为在汉语中没有k 和ker 的区别，所以很多中国人听不出来在辅音中添加
了er 的音。所以就出现了很多中国人讲英语的口音问题。下面 Alice 读正确的发音， 我读添加了er 的发音，看看你能不能听出区别来。

Alice: spoon

 

Wang Fei: serpoon

 

Alice: Britain

 

Wang Fei: Britern

 

Alice: cream

 

Wang Fei: kerream 希望大家能够听出它们的不同来。

 

Alice: Welcome back to our programme. Wang Fei, what time did you get up this morning?

 

Wang Fei: I got up at eight. What about you?

 

Alice: I got up at eight. Did you notice the difference between your answer and mine?

 

Wang Fei: Not much difference!

Alice: There are some differences. Let's hear from Jim Hitch again; he'll explain
how sounds in English connect together.

 

Insert
For example, 'I get up at 8': I don't say, "I – get – up – at 8", which is maybe what a Chinese learner would say. I say, "I get up at 8", which sounds like one long word and if you want to imagine it, I always say to my clients, well imagine an animal called an 'Igetupateight'. A little animal that sits in the corner called an 'Igetupateight'. If you think of it like that, it's a phrase, rather than a group of separate words. (They're allconnected.) All connected and the way they're connected is very simple, in a way.

 

Wang Fei: I get up at eight. 这是一个典型的英语连读。中国学生都知道连读的概念， 但是当
我们读起来的时候， 还是喜欢和读汉语一样， 一个一个地读， 字正腔圆。I get up at eight. Alice, what do you think if I speak like this?

Alice: It's nice and clear. I can understand it. But if you want to sound more natural think it as a whole unit. Jim gave a piece of good advice. Just imagine an animal called 'getupateight', 'getupateight'. It's very strange but just repeat the sound and forget about each of the separate words.

Wang Fei: 对。 在练习连读的时候，不要总是想着它们是一个个不同的单词， 而是把它们看作
是连接在一起的音， 就把 getupateight 当作一只动物的名字好了。下面 Alice 读英国人连读的发音，我一个单词一个单词地读。你可以仔细体会其中的差别。

Alice: worked_until_eight

 

Wang Fei: worked until eight

 

Alice: slept_in_a chair

 

Wang Fei: slept in a chair

 

Alice: get_on_a bus

 

Wang Fei: get on a bus

 

Alice: Once you hear the difference and repeat the sound again and again, you will get used to the sound linkage in English.

Wang Fei: Welcome back. Alice, what other problems have you noticed besides dropping sounds, adding sounds and word linkages we discussed just now?

Alice: Another important aspect we are going to discuss is rhythm. I think when Chinese learners are speaking they tend to speak in a different rhythm.

Wang Fei: Rhythm 节奏。中国人读英语的节奏和英国人有什么不同呢？ 我们一起来听听Liz
Chiu 伦敦帝国理工大学的英语教师的采访。

 

Insert
"It's not as easy as I thought it would be". This is an example that I often ask my
students to say, "It's not as easy as I thought it would be". And you can hear very strong syllables on 'easy' and 'thought' but very weak syllables through the rest of the sentence. Generally a Chinese speaker is going to say, "It's – not – as – easy - as – I – thought – it– would – be". It really sounds very different for us, if you don't put the words together groups and you don't have the strong and weak syllables. So my advice – sing some songs, singing is really good to improve rhythm.
Alice: Liz noticed that some Chinese students don't pay attention to the strong
syllables and weak syllables in English and they don't connect them together. It might sound like "It's – not – as – easy - as – I – thought – it– would – be", instead of "It's not as easy as I thought it would be".

Wang Fei: 是这样的。英语句子里很多音节是需要弱读的。比如说句子里的it would, 英国人
会读得很轻， 后边的't' 和'd' 听起来像没有了一样。但是中国人喜欢把每个音都读得比较重，所以听起来就比较别扭了。

Alice: Liz gives a very good suggestion: sing some English songs.

 

Wang Fei: It's a very good idea. 所以如果你想让你的英语节奏流畅，那就多练习唱英文歌曲
吧。希望我们今天的节目对大家的英语口语的提高有所帮助，在下次节目中，我们仍会请一些英语语言方面的专家和大家探讨中国人的英语口音问题。

Alice: I hope to see you next time. Bye bye.

 

Wang Fei: Bye!