Improvements of English Major’s Pronunciation

張暉映

Abstract： Some college English majors have difficulties in pronouncing English properly. How to improve their speaking skills is an urgent problem. This paper gives some practical strategies in a holistic approach， which has proved helpful in dealing with the problems.

Key word： pronunciation； confidence； improvement

Pronunciation is a basic form of language. Different nationality has different system of speech sound. When we learn a foreign language such as English， we tend to be influenced by many factors. Standard English pronunciation can make speech convincing and elegant. However， many English majors have difficulties in pronouncing English properly， which often leads to misunderstanding. So it is necessary to figure out some psychological and sociological strategies to solve the problem accordingly.

A. To improve learners confidence

Confidence is the key in doing anything successfully， especially in English learning. It can help students learn English more actively The teachers， therefore， should keep this in mind and try their best to build up students confidence by helping them lower their shyness so that they become bold enough to open their mouths. At the very beginning， teacher can do the following things： strengthening the students awareness of the importance of communicative competence， and analyzing the characteristics of their English learning so as to let them realize their great potential of improving oral skills and the advantageous factors to do so. Meanwhile， constant encouragements should be provided for the students by giving positive comments and timely compliments to those who take an active part in any oral activities and those who do something correctly or ever make slight progress. With the persistent practice， they are sure to improve gradually and steadily and achieve eventual success.

B. To emphasize the importance of English pronunciation in sociological factor

In current education system， students English pronunciation ability mainly depends on their English teachers， so the first key to improve students oral ability is to improve teachers quality. To enhance teachers quality， teacher should set strict demands on themselves， regulate their own pronunciation， so as not to mislead the students during the teaching process. For those teachers who have taught for many years， their school should give them some opportunities to take some refresher course， which let them keep up with the trends of times and learn more new teaching strategies. Secondly， teacher should let their students know the importance of oral English. The purpose of learning English is to use it. When students are asked the purpose of learning English， they will say to pass various exams or get more advantages in job hunting. This thought is wrong. At this moment， teacher with intensive responsibility should use correct attitude to guide their students and let them know language is used for human communication.

Psychological and sociological factors are in fact ignored in English pronunciation teaching. The systematic study of how people acquire a second language is a fairly recent enterprise starting in the second half of the twentieth century. Communication between people has expended well beyond their local speech communities. At such a time， there is an obvious need to discover more about how second languages are learned.

Bibliography

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[2]劉潤清，文旭. 新編語言學教程 [M] 北京：外語教學與研究出版社， 2006.