Phonological interference between English and Chinese when learning Mandarin

The Pinyin system, which is employed in China to teach native Chinese speakers how to read their own language, is also the most accessible and straightforward method currently used to learn Mandarin Chinese in the United States. Because Pinyin uses modified equivalent English letters to help learners to read Chinese characters, native English speakers consider it to be an efficient way of learning Mandarin. On the other hand, the Zhuyin Fuhao system, which is utilized in Taiwan, uses thirty-seven symbols to represent the pronunciation of Chinese characters. It is more difficult for other language speakers to understand, because it is another phonological method that is different from the Romanized Pinyin system. The Romanized system is more familiar to English and other Latin-based language speakers. Either way, the foreign language learners must learn a new phonological system before mastering the Chinese language. This research investigates the question of first language influence on native English speakers when they learn Chinese while they are utilizing either one of the above mentioned systems. Even though Pinyin uses Latin letters to indicate the pronunciation, its production method differs from English phonology. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to identify whether the interference of English phonological awareness affects native English speakers as they attempt to learn Mandarin Chinese language by using the Pinyin system or by using the Zhuyin Fuhao system. The participants are selected from the Chinese School of Great Kansas City. Six children formed the Pinyin group, and eight children are for the Zhuyin Fuhao group. Subjects from both groups recorded the same test content. According to the results, the Pinyin groups present English interference within their production even though the mean score of this group is slightly higher than that of the Zhuyin Fuhao group; on the other hand, the Zhuyin Fuhao groups did not show any interference in their production.