Second Language For Students In English Is Their Mother Tongue Chinese Intonation Errors

Intonation is a hard to define field, the classifications being complicated, the mutual intertwining making up prosody being one of the most difficult phonetic characteristics for foreign students to master. As such, further research into Mandarin Chinese intonation and prosody is greatly beneficial to foreign students aiming to learn Mandarin.For this research,6English native speaking foreign students were selected, as well as6native Mandarin Chinese speaking students as subjects, and employed the analytical methodology of experimental phonetics, designed based on stringent prosodic requirements. These were48similar declarative sentences organized into16groups, and48similar interrogative sentences likewise organized into16groups. The pitch and vocal length of both the Mandarin Chinese and English subjects were then contrasted and analyzed, comparing the quality and quantity of the intonation and prosody between the two groups, with an emphasis on trends in errors by the English native speakers learning Mandarin.Experimental results showed firstly that in both declarative and interrogative sentences, English native speakers showed a certain awareness of the focal syllable of sentences, and will sometimes adjust the pitch of the focal point to produce the focus, however this ability to use pitch to produce stress was weak, but quite skilled at increasing syllable length for the same purpose. Secondly in both declarative and interrogative sentences, the pitch trend of English native speakers was lower than that of Mandarin native speakers. Specifically, the pitch trend of both groups was almost identical for the first two syllables, but differed greatly afterwards, the difference in pitch between each syllable gradually increasing between the two groups. Thirdly, in interrogative sentences, English native speakers were unable to use the focal syllable to produce the interrogative mood, but were instead used to placing the interrogative mood on the final syllable, thus raising the pitch trend of the final syllable to produce the interrogative mood. Fourthly, in terms of harmonics, English native speakers struggled most with the composition of the second tone, struggling with the relationship between tone and intonation, displaying a weakness in phonetic change, either neglecting the influence on the flow of speech and reading the characters as if they were individual characters, or allowing for the influence on the flow of speech but producing an imprecise pitch trend with harmonic errors, particularly on the second and third tone.This paper proposed several educational suggestions based on the experimental results produced, as well as guidance for the teaching of prosody for students learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language.