TheRhythmDifferencesbetweenEnglishandChinese1

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1、英汉语在韵律方面的区别The Rhythm Differences between English and ChineseContentsAbstract.1Key Words.1I. Introduction.2II. Literature Review.2III. Word Rhythm.31. Word rhythm in English.32. Word rhythm in Chinese .43. Differences in word rhythm between English and Chinese44. Problems45. Techniques and solutions

2、 in teaching word rhythm in English5IV. Sentence Rhythm.91. Sentence rhythm in English92. Sentence rhythm in Chinese .93. Differences in sentence rhythm between English and Chinese104. Problems.105. Techniques and solutions in teaching sentence rhythm in English11V. The Relationship between Stress a

3、nd rhythm in English15VI. The Rhythm Differences between English and Chinese15VII. Conclusion.16References.17The Rhythm Differences between English and ChineseAbstract: Traditionally, teaching English pronunciation equals the teaching of English sounds. The majority of English learners believe that

4、if they want to have good pronunciation, they need to work well just on individual sounds. The question is that mastering individual sounds of English hardly guarantee a students perfect pronunciation. According to our experience and observation, we find that quite a large number of students, still

5、speak English in a way that it sounds choppy, or sometimes even incomprehensible. What makes their English speech so unnatural? What is the essence of English rhythm? Why is English rhythm so difficult for Chinese students? What are the most common types of errors that Chinese students make in Engli

6、sh rhythm when speaking? Which techniques and solutions are useful in the learning and teaching of English rhythm? In addressing the questions posed above, this paper will attempt to explore the features of English rhythm and suggest a number of techniques for helping students speak English with goo

7、d rhythm. The focus of the discussion will be on: (1) word rhythm in English and Chinese; (2) sentence rhythm in English and Chinese; (3) the differences between English rhythm and Chinese rhythm; (4) a variety of practical kinesthetic, visual, and aural teaching solutions and activities are present

8、ed to solve the problems at the same time. Key words: stresses; English rhythm; Chinese rhythm; similarities and differences摘 要：从传统角度上看，教英语的发音等于对英语语音的教学。许多语言学习者认为，如果他们想要语音发音好，他们只需要发好单个的语言音素。但问题在于，掌握英语的个别的音素就能说一个学生的发音是好的吗？根据我们的经验和观察, 许多学生虽然能够发好单个音素，但并不能说一口地道的英语，有时甚至让听者难以理解。出现这种现象的原因是什么呢？英语节奏是什么？为什么英语

9、节奏对中国学生就如此困难？中国学生在英语节奏上所犯的最常见的错误类型有那些？在教授英语节奏的过程中是否有对学习和教学有实用价值的技巧和解决办法？为了寻求上述问题的答案，作者将从分析、总结英语发音节奏的主要特征、规律入手来以探寻英、汉语言的韵律异同，目的是更好得使学生能在了解并掌握英语语言韵律的基础上说一口地道、流利的英语。本文讨论的主要内容：（1）英、汉语言单词的节奏；（2）英、汉语言句子的节奏；（3）英、汉语言节奏的差异；(4) 与动觉，视觉和听觉有关的实际、有效的的解决方法。关键词：重音；英语韵律；汉语韵律；异同与差异I. IntroductionBased on our present

10、study we find that although most Chinese students can speak English words correctly and clearly, however, they will say English sentences word by word or phrase by phrase in roughly equal length of time and loudness. Most of them can hardly read unstressed syllables in a correct way, which either in

11、 speech or in conversation. Generally they speak English with a changeless accent which sounds choppy and incomprehensive. The reason of this phenomenon can be due to the fact that they have no idea about the differences between English rhythm and Chinese one. Nowadays quite a number of researchers

12、have studied rhythm in the discoursal level, especially in essays and poetry. However, rhythm does exist in smaller domains in both English and Chinese. Chinese rhythm exhibits much the same nature as that of English rhythm, although differences between them do exist. Our task is to find out the sim

13、ilarities as well as the differences to explore the solutions to the problems. In order to know the rhythmic properties of both languages, we should search large numbers of language data and try to find the mechanism which makes the rhythm of a language. I have studied both languages from an objecti

14、ve and scientific points of view and discovered, although the two languages differ greatly on the surface, yet they are basically the same in the deep structure. In the present thesis, I will compare English rhythm with SC rhythm under the discoursal level. My task is to introduce the latest study o

15、n English rhythm and make a comparison and contrast between English rhythms with Chinese ones.II. Literature Review What is rhythm? Before we discuss the English and Chinese rhythm, we may have to explain what rhythm is. Dauer says in the unit “Rhythm” from his book Accurate English (1993): when we

16、speak naturally, words are parts of phrases and longer Sentences. What we hear is a sequence of syllables, like notes in music. The time relationships among syllables make up the rhythm of language. (p. 83) Rhythm, actually, is timing patterns among syllables, which, may not be the same in all langu

17、ages. There are, particularly, two opposite types of rhythm in languages: stress-timed and syllable-timed. According to Mackay (1985), stress-timed rhythm is determined by stressed syllables, which occur at regular intervals of time, with an uneven and changing numbers of unstressed syllables betwee

18、n them; syllable-timed rhythm is based on the total number of syllables since each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time. English, with an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, belongs to the second type, while Chinese, with nearly equal weight and time in all syllables, i

19、s syllable-timed. These two languages, therefore, vary greatly in rhythm. Holliday (2000) also classifies rhythm into two types: 1. Syllabic Rhythm (Syllabic Timing) and Pedaling Rhythm. The first indicates the tempo depends on the syllable so that all syllables tend to be roughly the same length, f

20、or which he cites Japanese and French as good examples. The latter one, Pedaling Rhythm (Foot Timing) indicates tempo depends on the foot, so that all feet tend to be roughly the same length of time. That is, in an utterance, if a foot is of three or four syllables, it will be articulated with the s

21、ame duration as a foot is made up of only one syllable. He cites English as a noticeable example of this type. David Abercrombie claims rhythm into another two types, too: 1) syllable-timed rhythm implies the periodic recurrence of movement supplied by the syllable-producing, the process of which is

22、 the chest-pluses, with the syllables recurring at equal intervals of time they are isochronous. French, Spanish, Yoruba and Hindi have such a sort of rhythm.2) stress-timed rhythm implies periodic recurrence of movement supplied by the stress-producing, and process of which is the stress pluses, an

23、d hence the stressed syllables are isochronous. English, Russian, Arabic can illustrate this mode best.Whether Chinese belongs to a syllable-timed language or stress-timed language has been still under discussion. Some writers like Professor T. K. Kwei says it belongs syllable-timed language. Other

24、hold the just opposite points of view with them. Mr. Ye Shengtao criticized severely the intolerable syllable-timed rhythm used in teaching school children the Chinese language. The present author holds identical views with Mr. Yeshengtao. Numerous examples from TV serials and radio plays show that

25、none of the characters speak Chinese in a syllable-timed rhythm. But Cantonese speakers of Putonghua from Hongkong and Guangdong Province are possible exceptions.III. Word Rhythm in English1. Word rhythm in EnglishEnglish words may be composed of one or more syllables. In words of two or more syllab

26、les, one syllable (stressed syllable) is stronger than the others (unstressed syllable(s) in the one and same word. A stressed syllable is louder, longer, clearer, and higher in pitch than unstressed syllables. Thus, the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables helps to create the word rhyth

27、m in English, which displays an alternative change in strength, length, and pitch. The importance of syllable stress has been explained by Gilbert (1994): “this is because English speakers appear to store vocabulary with stress patterns, so a stress mistake can throw a conversation off track, especi

28、ally if the speakers control of English vowel sounds is uncertain”. Therefore, the more frequently speakers misuse stress, the more effort listeners have to make to understand what the speaker say. 2. Words rhythm in Chinese Chinese, a tone language with four kinds of tone patterns, with which stres

29、s in each Chinese syllable is equally strong, so the Chinese students generally give each Chinese syllable almost the same strength, length, and pitch when speaking. The differences of the four tones make Chinese words sound changing regularly, that is, the different tones of Chinese words make the

30、Chinese word rhythm. 3. Differences in word rhythm between English and ChineseHaving a clear idea of word stress pattern of English is very important to our students. In English, there are three stress patterns, primary stress, secondary stress and the unstressed or zero stress. Different kinds of s

31、yllables have different strength, length, and pitch, while the stresses of Chinese syllables have almost the same strength, length, and pitch. 4. Common problems in word rhythm Not realizing the importance of syllable stress in English, many Chinese students tend to ignore stress patterns of English

32、 words. When reading or speaking they will put stress in any one of the syllables in a word randomly and this may cause misunderstanding problems. For example: “The movie I saw yesterday was TERrific”, said a student. In the word “terrific,” he put the stress on the first syllable rather than the se

33、cond one; therefore, what we heard was not “terRIfic” but “TERrified” which will easily bring misunderstanding problems for listeners to get the meaning of a word based on its stress pattern. Another common problem our students usually make about English word rhythm is that they tend to give each sy

34、llable almost the same strength, length, and pitch. As stress in each Chinese syllable is equally strong, most students will treat English words in the same way as they do in Chinese. Few students have a clear idea on how to weaken and reduce unstressed syllables. A very good example is the word “CH

35、Ocolate.” Many Chinese students say “CHO CO LATE,” which give equal length of time to each syllable apparently due to influence of the rhythm of Chinese. In English, a very important characteristic about word stress pattern that our students often ignore is that vowels in unstressed syllables are mo

36、stly reduced to a short central vowel / / or / i /, like the vowels reduced in the second and third syllable of “CHOcolate.” It is the vowel reduction that makes the length of time, strength, and pitch different between stressed and unstressed syllables. Gilbert (1987) has pointed out that “clarity

37、of the vowel is a particularly difficult concept for many students since in their languages all vowels are spoken in a full, clear way” (p. 36). This phenomenon, therefore, should deserve more attention in the learning and teaching of English word rhythm. 5. Techniques and solutions in teaching word

38、 rhythmImitation is one of the best ways to learn word rhythm by having students listen and repeat after the tape or the teacher, but definitely this is not enough. We suggest that the teacher points out what students problems are in word rhythm and then conclude ways to help them solve their proble

39、ms. In the following discussion, we will present two aspects of techniques or solutions in teaching word rhythm of English, namely, 1) the building of word stress pattern, and 2) stress production in terms of syllable strength, length, and pitch. 5.1. The building of word stress pattern 5.1.1 Using

40、visual effects on the blackboard or flashcards. When teaching a new word, the teacher needs to teach not only the phonemes but its stress pattern of the word as well, that is, the teacher should emphasize stressed syllables by using various visual effects. Examples: terRIfic terrific ter ri fic 5.1.

41、2. Predicting the stress position in words. Although many pronunciation textbooks provide word stress pattern rules for our students, we find these rule are not only unsystematic, but also incomplete as well. We suggest that our teachers help students discover and summarize rules instead of telling

42、them rules during teaching. For example, they can generate word stress pattern rules from the words that they have learned and apply the rules to the words that they havent learned. In this way, students can not only memorize the rules but internalize them. In Beisbiers Sounds Great book 1 &2 (1994)

43、, there are many activities for recognition and discovery of word stress pattern rules. Examples: Known words unknown words1) electric terrific italic academic Rule: In words ending in -ic, the main stress fall on the syllable before -ic. 2) baseball spaceshiphigh school instant noodles Rule: In com

44、pound common nouns made up of noun plus noun or adjective plus noun, the main stress is generally put on the first constituent not the second, which is usually place of stress for a free phrase. 5.1.3. Practicing various stresses to alter meaning. This activity of practicing various stresses will in

45、dicate that different positions of stress will result in different word meanings of words, which help students be fully aware of the effects of different stress patterns on word meaning. For example, in the words “history” and “history”, different position of word stress his and tor result in the di

46、fference in meaning. The unit “Word Stress Patterns” by Gilberts Clear Speech (1993) offers well-designed activitivies for this purpose. Examples: Students can work in pairs. Student A can choose to ask questions marked (a) or (b), noticing that the stress in sentence (a) and (b) patterns are differ

47、ent. Student B has to identify the stress pattern that Student A uses and then choose an appropriate answer. Questions Answers1). (a) is it elementary? No, its advanced. (b) Is it a lemon tree? No, an orange tree. 2). (a) Is that Europe? No, its China. (b) Is that your rope? No, its hers. 3). (a) Wh

48、at is in the desert? Sand. (b) Whats in the dessert? Sugar. (p.69) This activity is especially helpful to have students pay full attention to stress used in compound nouns. In compound common nouns, the main or primary stress is generally on the first element, not on the second. If stress is put on

49、the second constituent, which is usually the place for a free phrase, the meaning will be changed.Examples: (elements in bold indicating the main stress )They grow flowers in the greenhouse. (A glass building which protects plants from bad weather.) There are many flowers in the green house. (A hous

50、e which is green-colored.) 5.2. Stress production The chart below describes the characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables in English. Loudnesslengthpitchvowel lengthvowel clarityStressed SyllablesLoud long full highUnstressed Syllables Quiet short reduced lowThis chart may help students b

51、etter understand how stressed syllables differ from unstressed ones in three features: loudness, length and pitch. Each feature is indispensable in the production of word rhythm in English. Stressed syllables are not only louder but also longer and higher-pitched than unstressed syllables, and vowel

52、s in unstressed syllables are reduced so as to make the syllables shorter. Students having these characteristics to may be able to help them produce stressed syllable correctly. Besides, students can use this chart to examine how well they apply these characteristic(s) in speaking English words with

53、 more than one syllable. When teaching an English word, the teacher can speak a word, esp. a long word, with clapping, tapping, or playing simple rhythm at the same time, using instruments like a tambourine or a toy hammer to emphasize the feature of loudness. 5.2.1 Using rubber characteristics to i

54、dentify their problems in the production of word stress. 5.2.2 Clapping hands, tapping on the desk, or playing simple rhythmic instruments to emphasize loudness of a stressed syllable. The teacher can use these auditory techniques to produce a strong beat on a stressed syllable and a weak beat on an

55、 unstressed syllable, which they are very effective in helping students recognize the beat strength in stressed syllables, especially when they are not able to distinguish length variation in them. The teacher has students pull a wide rubber band between the two thumbs while speaking a word, stretch

56、ing it out during the stressed syllable, leaving it short during the other unstressed syllables. It may provide a visual image of the length difference between the stressed syllables and unstressed syllables by using a kinesthetic tool that mimics the actual effort involved in lengthening a stressed

57、 syllable (Gilbert, 1994). The purpose of this activity is to help students avoid pronouncing each syllable at the same length of time, which appears to be the most common problem for most Chinese students, that is, they can lengthen a syllable easily, but have a difficulty in shortening a syllable.

58、 The key point for solving this problem is to teach students to reduce vowels in unstressed syllables. For example, the vowel “a” in “woman” is reduced to / /, not a full vowel / / in “manner.” In Gilberts Clear Speech (1993), he suggests many activities involving using rubber bands. 5.2.3 Using kaz

59、oos, humming, or hand gestures to indicate pitch change. The idea of using a toy kazoo was originated by Gilbert (1984), who suggested using this tool to help students pay attention to the pitch change in English. A kazoo can amplify the vibration of the vocal cords by humming into it. The teacher c

60、an give a sharp demonstration of pitch change in a word or in a sentence. Since kazoos are not available in Taiwan, big-size straws can be used as a substitute, or if the teache”s voice is loud enough, humming loudly can work well too. The purpose of using any one of them is to offer students a spee

61、ch model presented by pitch change only, allowing students to concentrate on this specific point (Gilbert, 1994). Another technique to help students speak an English word with correct pitch change is using hand gestures. The teacher can imagine himself as a concert conductor, holding his hands up wh

62、en the pitch is high and down when the pitch is low. The up-and-down waving gestures provide a visual effect showing students how pitch changes among syllables.5.2.4 Playing a stress matching game. In this activity, students may listen to the word rhythm made by a toy hammer, clapping, tapping, or a

63、 kazoo by the teacher or a class member, and then, from a vocabulary list, the students are asked to find out the word which matches the rhythm they have heard and then repeat the word loudly. This activity can be done in the whole class or in small groups. The purpose of this game is to improve students discrimination and production of word stress. 5.2.5 Using back chaining activity to practice stress patterns of long words. Back chaining activity is to have students repeat the word by starting from the last syllable and extending to the beginning, which is especially helpful in d