作者：沈轶
　　【Abstract】Chinese is classified as a Sino-Tibetan Language， a family of tongue language in Asia， whereas English is a member of Indo-European language family， a family of inflectional languages. The marked phonological differences between these two languages impede the language learning process. This paper analyzes some frequently occurring phonological problems that Chinese students encounter when learning English.
　　【Key words】linguistic differences； phonology； learning difficulties
　　【作者簡介】沈轶（1987-），女，汉族，浙江宁波人，宁波大红鹰学院，硕士，讲师，研究方向：英语教学和第二语言习得。
　　One salient feature that distinguishes one language from another is the pronunciations of vowel sounds and consonant sounds. When one’s vocal organs are fixed to produce sounds in one language，， it requires a great deal of effort to get used to creating unfamiliar sounds in a new language， especially when the new language shares few similarities in pronunciation with the mother tongue. The number and articulation of consonants and vowels are different in English and Chinese. Due to the different phonological systems of Chinese and English， Chinese students encounter numerous difficulties in English pronunciation.
　　1. Problematic English Consonants
　　English interdental fricative consonants， [θ]and [?]， are especially difficult for Chinese students. They usually substitute [s] for [θ]， and replace [z] for [?]. The typical erroneous pronunciations mentioned by Thomas are “[s?nk] may be heard for thank… [wiz] for with” . Many students suffer from pronouncing these two interdental fricatives. When they learn to pronounce voiceless [θ]， it is almost silent because the air stream is blocked by the tongue， while producing the voiced one， they feel their tongue and lips so itchy that they tend to retract their tongue unconsciously.
　　In addition， for some English consonants which have similar counterparts in Chinese consonants， Chinese students also have difficulties in pronouncing them. For example， the place and manner of articulation of alveolar nasal consonant [n] and velar nasal consonant [?] are similar in English and Chinese. Some Chinese can pronounce these two sounds accurately both in Chinese and in English； however， those from some particular dialect regions could not distinguish them neither in Chinese or English. For instance， they always substitute [n] for [?] both in Mandarin and English. Their pronunciation of 英（yīng）雄（xióng） （hero） sounds like yīn xióng； as for English words like sing， they pronounce [sin].