2018年英语论文范文精选篇一
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
There is no doubt that language is the main tool for daily communication andthere are two types of language in the world. One is written form, and the other isspoken form. It is widely accepted that since the beginning of the human race, thereexists oral communication. However, written language form is far behind the oral one.Therefore, communication can be achieved mainly via speech. And oralcommunication contains two ways: one is speaking, that is the output, which means toexpress one's thoughts verbally; the other is listening, that is the input, which meansto understand other's thoughts through pronunciation. From what have beenmentioned above, it is clearly that pronunciation is of vital importance. Like othersounds pronunciation is a physical phenomenon which is caused by vibrating.However, pronunciation's uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a combination of soundand meaning. According to Stevick's philosophy of pronunciation, “pronunciation isthe primary medium through which we bring our use of language to the attention ofother people" (1978: 145). It is the fundamental basis for language teaching. Hence,no matter which foreign language people long to leam，it is important to leampronunciation in the first place.
………………
1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study
As numerous studies have shown that a native-like accent is impossible，it iswidely accepted that English pronunciation is hard to learn. Why pronunciation is sodifficult? There is no clear answer, what is generally accepted among psycholinguistsand phonologists who are specialized in this area, is that the difficulty of learning topronounce a foreign language which is cognitive rather than physical, and that it hassomething to do with the "raw sound，that is categorized or conceptualized in usingspeech. That is，when people try to pronounce, they should be aware that they aredealing with "raw soimd" according to its meaning instead of making speech withoutany signals. Lenneberg (1967) posited a critical period for language acquisition thatterminated at puberty. He thought it was due to the completion of "hemisphericlateralization and the end of cerebral plasticity" (quoted in 王桂珍 2011:258). InChina it is the beginning of puberty that people start to leam pronunciationsystematically.Moreover, as was mentioned before，it is pronunciation that receives leastattention in English teaching and learning while pronunciation is the foundation oflearning any language. So this thesis tries to investigate middle school students'English pronunciation in Shanghai through a specific case study and answer thefollowing questions.
…………………
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Basic Terms
2.1.1 Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to "the way or manner of pronouncing words" (2002: 116)in American Heritage College Dictionary. Similar definitions could also be found inthe Oxford Advanced Learner ’s Dictionary where it is referred to as “the way inwhich a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced" (2005: 1137). And inMacMillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, the definition is "the way inwhich a word or language is pronounced" (2002; 1130). Having gone through a lot ofAmerican and British dictionaries, there are only a few most recent dictionaries toinclude speech or language in defining pronunciation. Most of the dictionaries definepronunciation as the way or manner of pronouncing a word, words or syllables. Whenpronunciation is regarded as the way of pronouncing a word, it is not surprised tolearn that the old-style pronunciation teaching is oriented in the teaching of segments(vowels and consonants) accuracy. However，until recent time, the purpose ofteaching a foreign language has changed and it aims to build fluent communicationamong people. And more recent approaches to pronunciation have also suggested thatthe pr
