An Experimental Study On The Fricative Transfer Of Chinese And English To The Acquisition Of German Fricative

With the development of Language Transfer Theory,the phenomenon of language transfer to the acquisition of third language speech sounds has gradually become a new hot topic.The study of language transfer to third language acquisition involves not only the influence of mother tongue on second language and third language,but also the influence of second language on third language,so it is more complex than second language acquisition.Mother tongue transfer is generally considered to be the most important factor affecting third language acquisition in previous studies,however,the transfer of second language has not received enough attention.In the multilingual environment,an in-depth research needs to be conducted to determine which language plays a role in the acquisition of third language speech sounds.Based on Speech Learning Model and Fricative Pattern Theory,this study conducts an acoustic analysis of Chinese English majors’ pronunciation of German fricatives by means of speech experiment.The gravity and dispersion values of fricatives are extracted from speech analysis software to construct German fricative sound pattern,Chinese fricative sound pattern,Chinese English majors’ English fricative sound pattern and German fricative sound pattern.According to the comparison of these fricative sound patterns and statistical analysis of experimental data,this study explores the transfer of Chinese(L1)and English(L2)fricatives to the acquisition of German(L3)fricatives.This study intends to answer the following two questions:1.Compared with the fricative pronunciation of German native speakers,what errors do Chinese English majors make in the pronunciation of German fricatives?2.What transfer effects do Chinese and English fricatives have respectively on Chinese English majors’ acquisition of German fricatives?The major findings of this study are presented as follows:1.The pronunciation errors made by Chinese English majors in the acquisition of German fricatives mainly focus on the fricatives [f] [v] [s] [z] [h] [x] [?] [?] [?].The reason for these errors is that Chinese English majors’ articulation of German fricatives is influenced by Chinese negative transfer and English negative transfer,resulting in their poor control over the friction gap between vocal organs.2.German fricatives are classified into three categories according to the degree of similarity between German and Chinese fricatives,and that between German and English fricatives.The very similar fricatives in German include [f] [v] [s] [z] [h] [x],and the acquisition of these fricatives is influenced by the negative transfer of very similar fricatives[f] [s] [x] in Chinese and very similar fricatives [v] [z] [h] in English;the slightly different fricatives in German include [?] [?] [?],and the acquisition of these fricatives is negatively transferred by the slightly different fricative [?] in Chinese and slightly different fricatives [?][?] in English;the new fricative in German only includes [j],which is not influenced by the transfer of Chinese and English fricatives.In general,both Chinese and English fricatives have certain transfer effects on the acquisition of German fricatives,but English transfer has a greater impact than Chinese transfer,relating to the fact that they belong to different language families in essence.The research results of this study basically verify Flege’s theory of Speech Learning Model,that is,the smaller the differences between first language and target language,the greater the difficulties for advanced language learners to resolve.The findings of this study not only expand the research perspective of Fricative Pattern Theory,but also provide suggestions for further German speech sound teaching and learning.