Teaching Method Of "Sound –symbolism" In Japanese Onomatopoeia And Mimetic Words

Japanese onomatopoeia is very difficult to be memorized and mastered because they have various forms and multiply meanings and few kanji written tokens.This study attempts to analyze and find out the solutions for their memorizing and learning difficulties. Then using the “sound-symbolism” meaning by Japanese famous linguists Kindaiti Haruhiko guides students to memorize and master Japanese onomatopoeia and mimetic words.Through 30 days’ teaching experiment, this study attempts to investigate the teaching effect of sound symbolism teaching method on these types of Japanese onomatopoeia: the voiced and voiceless onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia in the form of chocked sound, syllabic nasal and R sound, onomatopoeia of reiterative locution, and examine how well the students mastered these types of onomatopoeia. The subjects of this study are 40 sophomore of Japanese major from Nanchang University. All the items of the two sets of test paper are chosen from the authoritative dictionaries: Japanese Onomatopoeia Dictionary by Asano Turuko(1978) and Japanese Onomatopoeia Adverb Dictionary by Jin Muzhen(2007). The two tests have similar difficulty and the same testing pattern. All the data collected was analyzed by SPSS 17.0, including descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests and so on.The major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly, the symbolic meanings of prefix consonants used in Japanese onomatopoeia teaching have received a good effect which students made a great progress and improved the scores. Most of students can take advantage of the symbolic meanings of eight prefix consonants to memorize onomatopoeia and mimetic words but they are poor in discriminating the synonyms of onomatopoeia and the onomatopoeia with the same prefix consonants.Secondly, a majority of students can identify the meanings of voiced and voiceless onomatopoeia and mimetic words when the concept that the symbolic meanings of the voiced and voiceless sounds with the same etymology are opposite and contrast is brought in onomatopoeia teaching experiment, but the students are usually confused in the case that one onomatopoeic has multi-meanings and their accuracy is very low.Thirdly, generally speaking, when the symbolic meanings of onomatopoeia word in the form of chocked sound, syllabic nasal and R sound with the same etymology introduced in the onomatopoeia teaching, most of students can use properly the onomatopoeia in chocked sound form but they can’t master well the onomatopoeia in syllabic nasal and R sound form. The reason is probably t hat students are lack of the sense of Japanese language.Fourthly, students have a rather good master of reiterative locution type of onomatopoeia and mimetic words when the symbolic meanings of the combination of prefix consonant and middle consonant are put into onomatopoeia teachings As this teaching way is merely able to be used in reiterative locution type’s onomatopoeia and mimetic words, it has its own limitations.Based on the findings above, some implications are presented for foreign language teaching and learning. First, Japanese teacher should flexibly apply the sound symbolism teaching method in teaching Japanese onomatopoeia and mimetic words. Second, in onomatopoeia teaching class, teachers should lead students to explore and seek their own learning ways and cultivate students’ self-study. Last but not the least, teacher should introduce this country’s culture and its people’s thinking pattern into vocabulary teaching and learning. It is vital important to train the students’ foreign language sense and divergent thinking and imagination.