AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON CHINESE TONE ACQUISITION ERRORS OF SRI LANKAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the errors in the Chinese tones of Sri Lankan undergraduate students, analyze the causes of the errors, and summarize the error rules through experimental method. Findings indicate that Sri Lankan students had a relatively short tone length for the fourth tone compared to native speakers. Moreover, their tonal range is relatively low and narrow, and their yang-ping tonal type is evident. From the aspect of tonal patterns, there is more confusion between the position of the Yangping and the upper tone in the pattern space of the Sri Lankan students, plus they pronounce the Yangping as the upper tone. Aiming at the above errors, this paper analyzes the causes of the errors in terms of the negative transfer effect of the Sinhala mother tongue, the complexity of Chinese tones, the difficulty of acquiring Chinese tones, and the learning environment incorrect countermeasures and methods.