Mediated Effect Of English Pronunciation On English Learning

Language is divided into two forms:spoken language and written language. In verbal communication, pronunciation plays an essential part in understanding each other’s ideas. Thus, to learn pronunciation is the first step to learn a language. In recent years, pronunciation studies are focused on the following three issues:(1) pronunciation teaching methods and pronunciation acquisition process; (2) the important role and influence of pronunciation on other aspects of language; (3) relations to skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing and phonological awareness. Therefore, pronunciation, the key to improving comprehensive English proficiency, is to be reckoned with English learning. However, the way pronunciation influences English learning is still unclear.Linguists believe that pronunciation is an externalized form of psychological organs, having differences of beauty and ugliness. Learners’ language competence is often evaluated through their perceptions. Negative evaluations affect English language learning in a negative way, while positive ones enhance Language learners’ confidence. And this kind of self-perception and self-evaluation is called Self-concept (Wang Chuming,2004a). Evidences show that Self-concept plays a significant mediating role in pronunciation and English learning as shown in Professor Wang’s (2004a,2004b) series of studies on pronunciation:As revealed in the ABC attitude model (Myers,2012), When conducting, people are influenced both by emotion and cognition. Thus it is assumed the phonological awareness as a cognitive factor may be strongly related to English language learning as well. As is shown in the following frame, this paper infers that pronunciation is likely to influence English learning through phonological awareness.According to relevant researches on pronunciation, the relation between pronunciation and phonological awareness (PA) remains unclear. It is still a puzzle whether phonological awareness plays a mediating role in the relation between pronunciation and English learning. Therefore, this study investigates 3 questions:(1) Is there a significant correlation between pronunciation and PA? (2) Is there a significant correlation between pronunciation and English Learning? (3) Does phonological awareness work as a mediator between English pronunciation and English learning?This study administered four tasks, namely English pronunciation, vocabulary, English phonological awareness and test scores of final English examination to the participants from a secondary school in Fujian province.Data collected were processed and analyzed by using SPSS13.0 and Excel. Results show that:(1) there is a significant relation between pronunciation and PA; (2) there is a strong correlation between pronunciation and English learning; (3) there is a mediation of PA in the relation between pronunciation and English learning.Taking into account of the cognitive factor phonological awareness, this study provided new insights into the relationship between pronunciation and English learning. In terms of either theory or practice, results are both exciting and significant. Theoretically, this paper further clarifies the relation between pronunciation and PA, and pinpoints the mediating role of PA; practically, early English teaching should attach more importance to pronunciation, and phonological awareness training so as to foster English language learning.