An Investigation On The Change Of Putonghua Accent Of Puxian-dialect Speakers

The study mainly investigates how the factors (age of learning L2, length of residence in a L2-speaking area, gender, motive, formal instruction, musical ability, amount of L2 use), under different language environments, affect the Putonghua accent of those Puxian-Dialect speakers with the same native language, the same second language and similar language experience.40 students from Daode Middle School in Xianyou County, Putian City,40 Puxian-Dialect-speaking freshmen in Fujian Engineer College and 40 Puxian-Dialect-speaking juniors in Mingjiang College take part in the experiment. Before the test, a questionnaire is made and the basic information about the students is acquired. The students are required to read a Chinese passage. The files are recorded and then evaluated by 3 qualified raters. The experimental results show that length of residence in a L2-speaking environment has a great effect on Putonghua accent of those Puxian-Dialect speakers; age of learning Putonghua before 6 has no effect on the L2 accent; female students have a better L2 pronunciation than male students; the students who got educated in a key elementary school speak a less accented Putonghua than those who received education in a common elementary school; the motive to speak L2 well does not influence the students' L2 accent; the musical ability imposes great influence on Putonghua accent among the students; the amount of L2 use is a significant predictor on their Putonghua accent.