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    Effects of hanyu pinyin on pronunciation in learners of Chinese as a foreign language

    Bassetti, Benedetta (2007) Effects of hanyu pinyin on pronunciation in learners of Chinese as a foreign language. In: Guder, A. and Jiang, X. and Wan, Y. (eds.) The Cognition, Learning and Teaching of Chinese Characters. Beijing, China: Beijing Language and Culture University Press. ISBN 9787561918807.

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    Abstract

    This paper provides evidence that the hanyu pinyin representation of the phonology of Chinese affects the production of Chinese phonology in instructed learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language. Pinyin generally has a one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes, but its transcription of some Chinese rimes does not represent the main vowel. As a consequence, learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language have non-target-like phonological representations of Chinese rimes, which in turn lead to non-target-like pronunciations. A hanzi reading-aloud task was used to elicit syllables containing the three rimes /iou/, /uei/ and /uən/ from final-year CFL students. Results show that learners often delete the vowels that are not represented in the pinyin transcription, but they produce the same vowels in the same rimes when the pinyin transcription represents them. It is concluded that the pinyin orthographic input interacts with the phonological input in shaping the phonological representations and pronunciation of Chinese syllables in intermediate as well as beginner CFL learners. Language teachers should therefore be aware of the effects of the pinyin orthography.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Book Section
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): second language acquisition, second language phonology, orthography, writing systems, pronunciation, language teaching, second language writing systems, second language learning
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Depositing User: Benedetta Bassetti
    Date Deposited: 02 Aug 2007
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:29
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/528

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