English pronunciation: difficulties for a chinese speaker

Abstract

This article reports on a case study that describes the pronunciation difficulties faced by a 39 years old Chinese speaker of female gender, who possesses a B1 (Common European Framework of Reference), required to apply to an internship in the process of learning English as a second language in the context of United States of America. To develop this topic, a questionnaire was designed and sixteen questions were selected to have a diagnosis of the student's difficulties. During the teaching process through observation, diagnostic and the theoretical framework, it was discovered that the difficulties with the pronunciation of the English language faced by the Chinese speaker are related to four aspects: first: the pronunciation of the vowels (i, u, a) and consonants (p, b, t, d, k, g, v, f, s, z, l, and r), second: tension of the word, third: patterns of intonation, and finally Chinese culture.