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Zhong Guo Da Xue Sheng Dui Mei Guo Da Xue Sheng Han Yu Fa Yin De Jie Du Fen Xi - Liu Ge Ge An De Yan Jiu

Southerland, Abigail C.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420561951

Abstract Details

2007, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
In this study, I explored the factors that affect American students’ ability to grasp the phonetics of Mandarin Chinese, as well as the characteristics of their pronunciation which affect Chinese listeners’ perceptions. I selected a group of six advanced level students of Mandarin to fill out a linguistic survey and recorded them completing five speech tasks. The data from these recordings was analyzed for both segmental and suprasegmental phonetic characteristics and compared with native speakers’ production to find each student’s most prominent production characteristics. I then asked Chinese university students to listen to these recordings and fill out surveys, detailing their perceptions of each speaker’s personality, character, and social status. In the analysis of American students’ production data and survey data, I found trends suggesting that previous foreign language study, musical experience, pedagogical methods, and study strategies greatly influence students’ ability to grasp phonetics of Mandarin Chinese. In the analysis of this production data and Chinese listeners’ survey data, I found trends suggesting that speakers’ pitch, tonal accuracy, vowel and consonant pronunciation, and prosody influence the perceptions of Chinese listeners. While this is merely a pilot study, the results we have found display patterns which are worthy of further investigation, and may shed light on issues in the fields of second language acquisition, Chinese pedagogy, phonetics and sociolinguistics.
Galal Walker (Advisor)
Jianqi Wang (Committee Member)
115 p.
Asian Studies; Sociolinguistics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Southerland, A. C. (2007). Zhong Guo Da Xue Sheng Dui Mei Guo Da Xue Sheng Han Yu Fa Yin De Jie Du Fen Xi - Liu Ge Ge An De Yan Jiu [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420561951

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Southerland, Abigail. Zhong Guo Da Xue Sheng Dui Mei Guo Da Xue Sheng Han Yu Fa Yin De Jie Du Fen Xi - Liu Ge Ge An De Yan Jiu. 2007. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420561951.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Southerland, Abigail. "Zhong Guo Da Xue Sheng Dui Mei Guo Da Xue Sheng Han Yu Fa Yin De Jie Du Fen Xi - Liu Ge Ge An De Yan Jiu." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1420561951

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.