The tone analysis of English native speaker --American beginners' study

• Main Authors: Wan-Ju, Liao, 廖婉如
• Other Authors: 陳亮光
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/56096978099556305285

碩士 === 高雄師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 98 === This study aims to probe the Chinese intonation performances of English native speakers in terms of Error Analysis and Interlanguage. The subjects of this study are 11 the English native speakers in Taiwan. In addition, a comparison of intonation performances between the 11 Americans and 5 EFL Taiwanese residents is drawn. The data includes the monosyllable words and the disyllabic words. Among the monosyllable words, altogether 185 samples are analyzed, and the disyllabic words, 671. The data collected were analyzed through Normalization. The findings of the study are shown as follows: (1) The error rate of monosyllable words and disyllabic words demonstrated the highest scores of high rising tone. (2) Subjects tended to confused high rising tone with the fall-rise tone. It can be inferred that they are not able to master the distinctive characteristics of Chinese intonation; (3) The negative transfer of high rising tone word phrases occurred because the pitch of English disyllabic words falls on the secondary syllable ; (4) Compared with the pitch of tone performances of Taiwanese residents, Americans scored lower. This can be inferred that their mother tongue is a negative transfer of Interlanguage. In summary, three pedagogical implications are provided for the English native speakers. First, as for teachers, the teaching procedure of the monosyllable words suggested is “T4 – T2 – T1 – T4 - T2 – T1 – T3” . In addition, the training of the rising tone of the monosyllable words ought to be decreased while that of the disyllabic or polysyllable words ought to be reduced. The teaching of intonation ought to be changed to meaningful learning as well. Second, as for learners, they ought to have more practice of reducing the fall-rise tone and of distinguishing the high falling tone. Besides, it is strongly recommended that the process of their practicing ought to be recorded for further improvement. Finally, as for the teaching media, teachers can use gestures to help learners to understand intonation. In addition, they can use digital multimedia and intonation analysis software to enrich the teaching of intonation.