A Case Study Of Phonological Variations Of English Majors In An MA Program

The present paper calls attention to the phonological variations of different English varieties, an increasingly prominent field within sociolinguistic research. The present study investigates the English pronunciation of twenty English majors in an MA program in a Chinese national university. The study aims to reveal the features of their English pronunciation and explore the relationship between phonological variations and sociolinguistic variations.The study finds that the English speech of the majority of the English majors manifests China English pronunciation in both segmental and supra-segmental levels. What is more, a relationship does exist between the phonological variations of (r), (θ) and pitch variation and sociolinguistic variables of gender, style, geography and English learning experience of the students in the study.The present study is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is the introduction to the thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review of the study. Chapter Three is the research methodology and results of this study, a detailed description of the research design, data process and results. Chapter Four is the discussion of the major findings of the study and implications for the English pronunciation training in Chinese EFL classrooms. Chapter Five concludes the study with limitation of the research and suggestions for future research.