A contrastive study of English and Chinese phonology: Special difficulties for young Chinese learners of English

This article contrasts the phonology of English language and Standard Mandarin Chinese language, highlighting some of the phonological differences that may slow down the learning of English by young Chinese students (about 3-12 years old). This article also provides linguistically plausible accounts for some of the difficulties that Chinese students encounter in their English learning process. These difficulties are mainly rooted in English speakers being voicing-distinguishers and Chinese speakers being aspiration-distinguishers. The article concludes with countermeasures to deal with the special difficulties Chinese students face while learning English. The data for this article are taken from previous research and from direct observation of real English classes in China.