A comparative study of Chinese ESL learners from Malaysia and the People's Republic of China in their pronunciation of /r/&/l/

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate if consonants /r/ presented similar problems for Chinese ESL students from Malaysia and Chinese ESL students from the People’s Republic of China. Both groups of students were enrolled in ESL classes in Malaysia at the time of the study, and they were all ethnic Chinese, but they came from different countries, and have had different previous language-learning experiences. Respondents were asked to read four word lists and a poem made up of different percentages of words containing /r/ in initial or medial positions. Interestingly, the results indicated that the ESL students from Malaysia generally have more problems in pronouncing /r/ than students from the People’s Republic of China. This paper elaborated the implications the study has for formulating strategies to better deliver pronunciation skills in order to minimise, if not eliminate this problem among the Chinese ESL students from Malaysia