The Study Of Thai Student's Acquisition Of Chinese Mood Particle Errors

At first glance, the Chinese mood particle can seem to be easy to study, but in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, studying the mood particle and its usage is not so simple. Many teachers when teaching usually neglect the importance of the Chinese mood particle. But for Thai students, understanding the Chinese mood particle is a great challenge. In the practical usage of the mood particle, there appears, for various reasons, a high propensity for error. The Chinese mood particle is not only an integral part of a Thai student's study of Chinese but is also foundational for a comprehensive study of the Chinese language. Therefore, when teaching Chinese as a second language, the mood particle should not be neglected; the research and discussion of the acquisition pattern of mood particles will, in regards to the teaching and study of Chinese, hold great practical meaning. Additionally, it can focus our teachings towards a more definite target and produce greater results.The past study of Chinese mood particles is not completely applicable to Thai students in their acquisition of Chinese mood particles. As of yet, there has not been a study done on Thai student's acquisition of Chinese mood particles, it is thus clear that the circumstances surrounding mood particle acquisition and its patterns must be carefully studied. The purpose of this thesis is to compare Chinese mood particles with Thai mood particles, investigate the purpose of mood particle, and perform an analysis on the difficulty of the acquisition process. Lastly this thesis will through a practical mood particle grammar exercise anticipate and classify the type of errors most commonly made by Thai students. This analysis will provide insight as to the cause of Thai student's errors in studying Chinese mood particles, and put forward suggestions for Thai student on how to study Chinese mood particle.Out of the comprehensive studies already performed on mood particles, this thesis will only consider the specific mood particles: "a","ba","ma","ma","ne" They altogether express 9 kinds of mood meanings, these 9 kinds of mood meaning again can be divided into 15 kinds of usages. This thesis in regard to "a","ba","ma","ma","ne" distinguishes mood particle meaning against usage as of principal importance, but at the same time this thesis will consider the 15 kinds of usage.The 9 kinds of tone meanings and the 15 kinds of usages are as follows:1.The mood particle "a" expresses the mood of mitigation,and is used at the end of a declarative sentence.2. The mood particle "a" expresses the mood of mitigation,and is used at the end of an imperative sentence. 3. The mood particle "a" expresses the mood of mitigation, and is used at the end of an exclamation sentence.4. The mood particle "a" expresses the mood of mitigation, and is used at the end of a question sentence.5. The mood particle "ba" expresses the mood of surmise, and is used at the end of a question sentence.6. The mood particle "ba" expresses the mood of discussion and mitigation, and is used at the end of a imperative sentence.7. The mood particle "ma" expresses the mood of question, and is used at the end of a question sentence .8.The mood particle "ma" expresses the mood of question, and is used at the end of a rhetorical question .9. The mood particle "ma" expresses the mood of what should have been or that the reason is obvious, and is used at the end of a declarative sentence.10. The mood particle "ne" expresses the mood of mitigation and really wanting to know, and is used at the end of an especially pointed question.11. The mood particle "ne" expresses the mood of mitigation and really wanting to know, and is used at the end of a selective question.12. The mood particle "ne" expresses the mood of confirmation and exaggeration, and is used at the end of a rhetorical question. 13.The mood particle "ne" expresses the mood of confirmationand exaggeration, and is used at the end of a declarativesentence.14.The mood particle "ne" expresses action under way or thecondition of continuity, and is used at the end of adeclarative sentence.15.The mood particle "ne" expresses the mood of question, andis used at the end tail of a brief right or wrong question.The scope of this thesis only covers these 15 items. Other mood particles or the case of two mood particle together and other mood particle meanings are not covered in the range of this text.This thesis is in accordance with contrastive analysis theory and inter-language theory. The contrastive analysis theory studies the difference between one's mother language and target language. This paper summarizes the effect the mother language has in interfering with the acquisition of a target language. Additionally, it predicts and provides explanation of how the two kinds of differences between Chinese mood particles and Thai mood particles create difficulty in studying the Chinese language. Lastly this thesis will adopt a prevention measure in the teaching of Chinese mood particles. The interlanguage theory is advantageous to the study of the true nature of the learner language system; revealing that the acquisition of a second language is contained within the language system and acquisition pattern of the language system.After that we will compare the similar and different points of Chinese and Thai mood particles. This thesis will compare corresponding Chinese and Thai mood particle, relatively similar mood particles and non-corresponding mood particles. We will analyze the mood particle questionnaire results; calculate the number of correct and incorrect problems and percentages in the different grades of Thai students. By this, we will analyze and research the errors-made by Thai student's regarding Chinese mood particle. Firstly, we will introduce our analysis method. Secondly we will introduce the analysis procedure. The main analysis will be on the errors of the mood particles " a ","ba","ma","ma","ne" and the non-standard usage of mood particles made by Thai students. Finally we will analyze the cause of error on Chinese mood particle made by Thai students. They are as follows: (1) Mother language negative transfer, (2) Target language over-generalization, (3) inappropriate teaching methods or error in study material.From the error analysis we can draw these conclusions:(1)Through contrastive analysis we can see, the Chinese and Thai mood particle meanings are not completely equivalent, some of them are corresponding, some of them are not corresponding, and some of them are similar.(2)The errors that appear in the acquisition Chinese mood particle for Thai students not only match with contrastive analysis theory but also match with the interlanguage theory.(3)The mood particle questionnaire results will manifest: the mood particles "ma" is good for acquisition , but the mood particles " a "," ba "," ma "," ne " are not good for acquisition. Therefore it is very important to research Thai student's acquisition of Chinese Mood Particle.In regards to teaching material, teaching method, and the nature of language research for the study of Chinese mood particles for Thai students, we will put forward nine suggestions which we hope will provide a worthy reference guide for both those engaged in teaching Chinese to Thai students and those Thai students learning Chinese.