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English Pronunciation Resources for Native Chinese Speakers

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July 8, 2015

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In my last post for Chinese students, I looked at some of the consonant sounds in English that are difficult for native Mandarin speakers.

Today, I’m here to show Magoosh’s Chinese learners some of the best resources on the web for pronunciation of English consonants. Read on!

The videos for Chinese students on the Rachel’s English Youtube Channel. Rachel’s English has some great clips designed to help Chinese students with pronunciation. The following video is really helpful for Chinese learners who need to improve their English consonant pronunciation. It focuses both on consonants and on vowels as they relate to consonants.

Rachel’s other Youtube Videos for Chinese students are linked below:

American English Accent Evaluation, Part 1 of 2 and 2 of 2. In these two videos, Rachel analyzes the speech of a male Chinese student.
American English Accent Evaluation: Female Chinese Speaker. Rachel gives another helpful, detailed set of corrections for a recording of a Chinese student’s speech.

Ted Power’s 27 Common Pronunciation Problems for Chinese Students. This page includes a look at 17 common consonant problems. It includes many activities with minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are words that sound almost the same, but have one different sound. These pairs are very useful for practicing distinct pronunciation of consonants.
Speak Method’s Free 8 Week English Pronunciation Course for Chinese Students. This online self-study course includes links to many, many pronunciation videos. The page of examples and videos for the R sound is particularly helpful.
Pronuncian’s Podcast Playlist For Chinese Learners of English. This page shows different English sounds, with audio examples of the sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of words. Each set of audio samples is followed by a written list of minimal pairs for practice.

Author

David Recine

David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles, his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru. Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, or connect with him via LinkedIn!

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3 responses to “English Pronunciation Resources for Native Chinese Speakers”

swan

July 8, 2015

thanks a lot. I hope it will be helpful!

Reply
M

January 29, 2017

Hello.
The problem with English today, is the fact, Phonetics does NOT teach the correct English sounds. Take the letter “U”, in English it has two sounds, it’s name “U” pronounced just like the word “YOU”, and it’s sound “u” like in the words Cup and Sun.
The Correct Proper English letter “U” does NOT have the Phonetic sound of “oo”.
Take the word TUNA, pronounced T YOU NA, in proper English! While with the French/American Phonetics it is pronounced TOONA! Which in fact is NOT English!
People being taught Phonetics will never be able to pronounce correct proper English words!
The whole problem comes from the Phonetic rubbish being taught today!
Phonetics does NOT have paired letter sounds, or syllables.
Thank you

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  January 30, 2017
  
  This comment made me smile. You’ve really done a good job describing the difficulty of written English phonics. The English writing system has a lot of inconsistencies that can be very frustrating and confusing, to be sure. You’re also right that phonics, at their most basic level, are not about paired letters– they are just about sounds. Unfortunately, the only alphabet that rally captures this by assigning one letter to one sound is the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet. Any other alphabet will sometimes use pair or groups of letters to show a single sound. And English does this more than most languages.
  
  There are a few things I disagree with you, however. I would say that syllables are a part of phonics and phonology. People make distinct sounds to create a sense of multiple syllables. This is very much about the sound of speech, and isn’t just a construct of writing.
  
  I’d also say your “tuna” example isn’t quite correct. I’ve heard “tuna” pronounced either way by speakers of British English. Additionally, it’s hard to say that any one form of English is “not” English. If a French person or an American person can communicate clearly to others in English, then I think their words can be considered “English,” even with some variations in pronunciation. The TOEFL takes this position a well. Accents and and non-standard pronunciation has little or no impact n score, as long as the speech in understandable.
  
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