An Investigation of Consonant Errors Made by Czech Learners of Mandarin and Teaching Material Design
| Autor: | Pei-Yu Yeh, 葉姵妤 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 106 The correct pronunciation of Mandarin initial consonants involves many factors, such as the place of articulation as well as the manner of articulation; hence for foreign learners, the pronunciation of Mandarin initials is more difficult than that of vowels. This study investigated Mandarin consonant errors made by Czech learners, with a special focus on onset consonants. The phonological systems of the two languages differ greatly in terms of both the place of articulation and the manner of articulation. Nevertheless, few researches have been conducted on this issue. Adopting the Speech Learning Model (Flege 1995), the present study predicted that retroflex consonants and aspirated consonants would be easier for Czech learners of Mandarin given that these sounds do not exist in Czech. On the contrary, pre-palatal consonants, which are similar but not entirely identical to Czech consonants, might be the most difficult for Czech. Our result showed that, indeed, pre-palatal consonants are the most difficult compared with other consonants, and even after six months of intensive learning, learners still made errors on these consonants. Nevertheless, as Flege (1995, 1996) notes, L1 and L2 sounds coexist in a shared and malleable system. Under this rationale, we suggest that explicit teaching, i.e. providing learners with phonological correspondence between L1 and L2, might activate learners’ phonological awareness, thus facilitating the acquisition of Mandarin onset consonants. Based on the results of the present study, teaching material for Czech learners and suggestions for future studies were provided at the end of the thesis. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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