Advanced Cantonese ESL learners' production of English speech sounds: Problems and strategies

This article discusses the production of English speech sounds by advanced Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong. A total of forty university students participated in the study, which included three speech production tasks investigating participants' production of target English speech sounds in isolated words, minimal pairs and passages. The results of the study give confirmatory empirical evidence supporting previous literature on the pronunciation difficulties encountered by Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners as well as the strategies they often use to overcome their pronunciation difficulties. It is suggested that speech training be included as an integral part of ESL curriculums for students of all levels, but for advanced learners of English, such programmes should be research-driven and prioritized.