Presentation

Helping Chinese Learners Distinguish English /L/ and /N/

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Abstract

Research has demonstrated that certain consonant errors have strong negative effects on speaker intelligibility and comprehensibility to NNS and NS listeners (Jenkins, 2000; Munro & Derwing, 2006). One consonant distinction identified on theoretical grounds by Brown (1988) and Catford (1987) as “high functional load” and empirically demonstrated (Munro & Derwing, 2006) as important to comprehensibility in English is the /l/ and /n/ distinction. Certain Chinese speakers of English tend to confuse /l/ and /n/, and this paper therefore describes their struggle, discusses characteristics of the Chinese language context that likely affect their /l/ and /n/ substitution, and proposes a research agenda aimed at clarifying various aspects of this struggle so that more effective pedagogical methods and materials for helping these learners can be developed.

How to Cite:

Richards, M., (2011) “Helping Chinese Learners Distinguish English /L/ and /N/”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 3(1).