Influence of Dialect on the English Consonants Perception by English L2 learners: Evidence from Jiangsu Province for Chinese Native Speakers

The native language will have a negative transfer on the acquisition of second language. Dialects, as a branch of Chinese, also have an influence on English acquisition. The perception of consonants is one of the important foundations of English learning. This study will adopt discrimination as an experimental method to investigate whether there is a significant difference in the influence of different dialects on the perception of English consonants. Three major dialects in Jiangsu province will be taken as a study case to verify the hypothesis that there is a significant difference on the perception of English consonants in different dialects. This study will fill the gap in the overall research on the impact of three major dialects in Jiangsu province on the perception of English consonants, help English language learners with dialect background to reduce the influence of dialects on them and provide some teaching key points to teachers, especially for English language learners in Jiangsu province.