Canadian Students' Chinese Phonetic Acquisition And Teaching

The research topic of this doctoral dissertation is to establish a teaching framework for the second language learners from Canada who have passed the critical period of language learning and who are raised in multiple language context to successfully master the Chinese phonetics. The dissertation argues that there are two issues which need to be solved in the Chinese phonetics teaching in Canada:L1transfer and cultural conflicts.It is widely accepted that the older a leaner the stronger accent s/he will have, and children who study their first language normally have no accent. However, the research findings of the L2phonetics studies do not necessarily prove that the ability of an adult in learning foreign language phonetics and that of a child have difference. This dissertation will prove that adults have not lost their ability of phonetic learning; Their L2accent has a lot to do with the fixed phonetic system of mother tongue; The more they use L1, the stronger accent of L2they will have. By using appropriate learning strategies, the adult learners can overcome the negative influence of their mother tongue and acquire standard Chinese phonetics. The multicultural language context is the unique feature of the Canadian students who study Chinese phonetics. Many of the learners of Chinese in Canada are bilingual and have accumulated a certain learning experience and linguistic knowledge. They have some obvious advantages in language sensitivity and clarity of pronunciation.This Ph.D. thesis, observing the students of Chinese languages at Huron University College at Western University and using the research findings from linguistics and applied linguistics, investigates these young adult learners successfully master Chinese phonetics in the multicultural language context. Its contents include the following:1. Examining the inter-language phonetics of the students at different learning stages; identifying the difficult and unique areas of English-speaking Canadian students at university level;2. Examining factors affecting Chinese phonetics acquisition from the angles of L1transfer, age, and learning strategies; analyzing the successful phonetic acquisition strategies which can help students to overcome negative language transfer and other obstacles by comparing the successful and ordinary students;3. Examining the impact of Canada’s multicultural and multi-language context as well as the teaching of bilingual and multi-language on the acquisition of Chinese phonetics;4. Examining the relationship between accent and intelligibility and identifying the Chinese phonetic elements affecting the intelligibility of Chinese pronunciation; identifying the commonalities of successful Chinese phonetic learners through case studies. The data of this thesis come from the phonetic testing as well as the questionnaires collected from the students. The conclusions of this thesis are as follows:1. L1transfer occurs practically in all students in the early phase of their second language learning.2. The appropriate application of compensatory and prime cognition strategies can help to avoid the fossilization of the acquisition of standard Chinese phonetics.3. Accent does not necessarily affect the intelligibility. Tone is the sole crucial factor affecting the understandability. The focus of Chinese phonetic teaching should be the tones.4. The promotion of multiculturalism as well as the respect and appreciation of ethnic cultures and languages in Canada provide a favorable context for second language learning. The past studies on L2acquisition focus too much on the age factor and neglect the social factor. This thesis argues that students raised in the multicultural and bilingual context are more sensitive in the phonetic acquisition.5. The natural cultural penetration can effectively enhance the Chinese phonetic acquisition.This doctoral thesis supplements and modifies the theories of critical period hypothesis, comparative analysis, and deviated analysis. By expanding the study of intelligibility from mechanical testing to the study of inter-language phonetics, this thesis makes a considerable contribution to the L2phonetic teaching. Through the multiple angles of L1transfer, learning strategies and multicultural social context and by using the methods of case studies, the thesis analyzes and examines the strategies of successful learners of Chinese phonetics, and it offers effective teaching strategies of Chinese phonetic acquisition in the complex language and cultural context.