Mandarin Transfer and Chinese Primary Pupils’ Learning of English Connected Speech: From Evidence to Classroom Moves

Abstract

In the context of globalization, English proficiency constitutes a crucial component of intercultural communication and educational competitiveness. However, Chinese primary English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms have long disproportionately focused on segmental features at the expense of suprasegmentals such as rhythm, reduction, and connected speech(liaison). This study employs literature analysis and case analysis to explore how Mandarin transfer both facilitates and hinders children’s acquisition of English inter-word transitions. Furthermore, it investigates the localization of these theoretical insights into practical pedagogical designs. Findings from previous research indicate that connected speech can be explicitly taught through perception-to-production tasks, and that first language (L1)-based pre-task planning enables learners in allocating cognitive resources to pronunciation and prosody, thereby improving accuracy and fluency. Under the lens of superdiversity, this paper also emphasizes the pedagogical value of translanguaging, which legitimizes the strategic use of Mandarin as a pedagogical scaffold to enhance intelligibility and reduce learner anxiety. Synthesizing the reviewed evidence and case interpretation, a five-step pedagogical framework—contrast, annotate, L1 outline, shadow, and bilingual reflection—is proposed to integrate positive transfer and mitigate negative transfer in primary EFL contexts. The study aims to provide a theoretically grounded yet contextually adaptable framework for teachers seeking to enhance pupils’ connected-speech competence, particularly within the constraints of exam-oriented classrooms.