ACUQISITION OF CHINESE ASPIRATED SOUNDS BY BEGINNER CHINESE LEARNERS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The nimble growth of economy opened China to an international exchange flux. As a result, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language started to play a vital role all over the world. Among all aspects in teaching Chinese, this study intends to investigate how beginner Chinese learners acquire aspirated and non-aspirated sounds in Chinese and explore whether there is an influence of first language or second language on acquiring sound aspiration of the target language. A questionnaire circulated among twenty beginner Chinese learners, recordings of twenty words by ten individuals and a class room observation were used for collecting primary data and also myriad literary works strengthened the study. Analyzed data have authenticated that, frequent errors and difficulties of aspiration come under un-aspirated sounds. Those fascicles are consecutively b, g, and d. The premier reason for this problem is not mother tongue influence, but the influence of English language. At preliminary stage of learning Chinese, beginners learn phonetics, as initials are written with English letters; unconsciously learners try to pronounce them as how the particular sounds are pronounced in English. When practicing syllable pronunciation, learners tend to pronounce pinyin also similarly as in English. Solution for this issue is to start pronunciation with teaching International Phonetic Alphabet. Though learners are capable of acquiring phonetics at the instance they are taught, issues arise later. Majority of the students are engaged in self-pronunciation practices and they believe it adverts to an accurate pronunciation. Frequently used self-studying methods by students are referring books, internet tools and audio visual aids. Even though these methods assist the issue, still students are in a need of more fillings to the practical studying vacuum. To fill up the vacuum, tactical and systematic options accompanied by modern technology should come to the platform. For pronunciation practices, time allocation should be enhanced by students and beneficial practical evaluation method should be initiated for evaluating pronunciation in order to have the real productive yield of Chinese pronunciation teaching.