The Acquisition Of Mandarin Vowels By Japanese Learners

From acoustic measurement and intelligibility judgement, this paper examined the acquisition of mandarin vowels /a,o, γ,i,u,y/ by Japanese learners who were experienced and inexperienced in Chinese. According to the results of phonological contrast and acoustic measurement, we divided these vowels into two categories: "similar" and "new"; and we also ordered these vowels in terms of their similarity to L1. The results were as follows: first, for either similar or new vowels, the greater of similarity between L1 and L2, the easier to be acquired. Second, markedness influenced the acquisition of new phones, the more marked, the more difficult to be acquired. Third, learning time worked differently in the acquisition of the more difficult phones. Learning time showed no difference for phones of little similarity. While for phones of greater similarity, the function of the learning time was significant. To sum up, L1 transfer and markedness worked together in L2 speech acquisition, the more marked, the more difficult to be acquired.