A study on Chinese Accented English for Japanese People in the Maritime Sector

Abstract

The present study investigated patterns of foreign accent conspicuous in English produced by native speakers of Chinese. Native speakers of English and Japanese listened to English speech data collected from Chinese-speaking cadets, and reported Chinese accents they heard. Based on their reports, the authors pointed out typical Chinese accents which Japanese speakers are likely to find confusing, with a support of Pinyin transcription and contrastive analyses of Chinese, English, and Japanese. They included realization of English /v/ as [w], peculiar quality of/l/ and /r/ when following a vowel, and insertion of an extra vowel and/or omission of a consonant in a sequence of two or three consonants. China being one of the most important trading partners, we strongly believe that knowledge on characteristics of Chinese accented English described here will help Japanese people in the maritime sector with easier communication with Chinese seafarers, which will contribute to safer navigation of ocean-going vessels.