A Study on Stress Misplacement in English Polysyllabic Words by Chinese EFL Learners: A Perspective of Perception and Production

Abstract

In phonological acquisition, word stress is one of the most important suprasegmental features, and stress misplacement has an impact on the clarity of phonological expressions and the accuracy of language acquisition. Therefore, studies on stress misplacement in perception and production of English words by Chinese EFL learners is of great significance for improving English teaching. Among these studies, stress misplacement in the perception and production of English polysyllabic word stress is particularly significant. In this study, 39 non-English major sophomores participated in experiments on the perception and production of word stress. The tendency of stress misplacement in the perception and production of English polysyllabic words was examined by the author, along with the connection between the two processes.

The results showed that stress misplacement was affected by the number of syllables and parts of speech. The frequency of stress misplacement increased with the increase of the number of syllables in the word, and the frequency of stress misplacement was highest in nouns, followed by verbs and adjectives. The Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.796 (p=0.01, p<.05) indicated a significantly positive correlation between stress misplacement in perception and production. The frequency of stress misplacement was higher than that during production, suggesting that there was an imbalance between perception and production. This study suggests that more attention should be paid to the teaching of stress perception, and that perception practice should be combined with production practice.