Many Chinese learners add or drop sounds when they are reading or speaking English, and they often can't hear the difference.

They might add an extra sound when they are reading some words, such as 'crisps', for example. What sort of sound would they add? Wang Fei and Alice will help you find out.

Also, 'I get up at eight' is a very simple sentence but Wang Fei and Alice read them differently. What kind of difference makes a Chinese learner's spoken English sound different from a native English speaker's?

Chinese learners might have a problem pronouncing the English phrase 'Get up at eight'

In this programme, Alice Castle and Wang Fei interview several experienced English teachers and tutors to help Chinese learners of English improve their English pronunciation and intonation.

很多中国学习者能够读好英语中的每个单音， 但是他们的英语口语还是不自然， 甚至口音很重。 这是为什么呢？ 在今天的节目中， 我们将分析中国人英语口语中的几个普遍问题， 像吞音、添音、连读、和节奏等问题， 千万不要错过。

If you have a question you would like to ask our team, email us at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. We might produce a programme about your question.

Chinese Accent 2 / 中国人的英语口音：语流篇
 
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(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. 
 
Alice:  Oh, hi there.
 
Wang Fei:   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.  
 
 
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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. So it's like: 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'. Some people 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. 
 
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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  consonant-vowel 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 'cris-pe-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  
 
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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 sounds.
 
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. 
 
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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  
 
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of  it  like  that,  it's  a  phrase,  rather  than  a  group  of  separate  words.  (They're  all connected.)  All  connected  and  the way  they're  connected  is  actually  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 of  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。 
 
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"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 in groups and you don't have  the strong and weak syllables. So my advice – sing some songs, singing is really good to improve rhythm. 
  
 
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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!