2. Literature Review

2.1 Former researches on dialect and English phonetics

During years of English teaching practice process in local normal universities, authors find such an interesting phenomenon: among English major students speaking dialect, students who are good at speaking mandarin also have standard pronunciation and good listening comprehension level. However, those who do not well in speaking mandarin always have poor English pronunciation. So, for English major students speaking dialect, is there a certain connection between mandarin, dialect and English pronunciation? Gui Cankun has pointed out, in addition to the dialect, if one can also speak one or two other languages, he will learn English phonetics fast and easily (Gui 78). Meng Yue and Wang Yanyu selected 40 English majors speaking Wei Fang dialect in Shan Dong province as investigation objects. The study found that there is a close correlation between mandarin pronunciation and English speech level (Meng and Wang 10-13). Lin Shaoarong’s research conclusion is opposite to the above point of view. Her research consider that monolinguals’ speech output capacity is stronger than bilinguals (Lin 127-131). The current domestic researches on the relations among English phonetics level, mandarin and dialects mostly on the base of theoretical studies and teaching experience, while empirical researches are rare (Li 55-58). 

In the process of learning varieties of languages, a problem that is not allowed to ignore is the language migration phenomenon. With the guidance of cognitive of language migration theory, Kelleman put forward the concept of “psychological language distance”. "Psychological language distance" refers to learners’ feelings to the sense of distance between mother tongue and target language(Kelleman 37-57）. This distance and objective language distance are probably consistent but different. Kelleman emphasizes that the language learners’ subjective consciousness of the distance is very important in the process of learning phonetics and highlight learners function as cognitive subject. The participants’ feedback also proved his point of view. Because dialect students’ mandarin is improved in the long-term of practice. The level of mandarin can reflect the students' ability in language acquisition. Students having higher level of mandarin speech also have stronger ability of learning speech, imitation and speech perception. If one has a better understanding of consistence and differences between the dialect, mandarin and English phonetics, he or she will be able to overcome the negative transfer of the dialect to English phonetics learning and will be successful in using mandarin learning experience and strategy to English language learning. Therefore, dialect’s positive effects on students' mandarin pronunciation are essentially a migration of learning ability.文献综述

2.2 Theories in English phonetics learning

Vygotsky published the context of “The Problem of Preschool Education and Intellectual Development”. It tells us that when learning a new language, we should first learn the pronunciation of the language. Due to the limitations of the learning environment, the key to learn correct pronunciation is to imitate English speakers native sound recording. Due to various factors, many students are hard to learn the correct pronunciation. The practice proves that the worse your foreign language speech are, the more difficult to listen to the foreign language. It will affect all aspects of foreign language learning and bring great difficulties in foreign language learning. There are many influential factors in phonetic learning, of which the learner's age and the first phonetic and experience are vital. It should be paid enough attention to. Vygotsky’s researches also show that if learners learn second language before the age of six, they will have little or no English accent; If learners are between the age of 7 to 12, they may have a slight native accent; If learners learn to speak a second language after 12 years old, they will almost always have certain native accent. In all, older you are, more stable the first voice system will be. In the field of psychology, phonetic is a part of personality. The older you will be, the more attention you will pay to preserve personality and don't want to change it, which is the reason why many students don't want to speak English in public even in English class. (Vygotsky 134)