Research On Foreign Students' Chinese Pronunciation Learning Strategies

The position of teaching pronunciation in TCFL is beyond dispute. However, recently it has witnessed a downfall. The traditional pattern for pronunciation acquisition study is focused on phonetic comparison and error analysis, neglecting the role that individual factors play in the process of language learning.On reviewing of the research of second language acquisition, the focus has shifted from teaching methods to the influence that learners' individual characteristics and learning strategies brought to the learning process. However, in the study field of learning strategies of learners learning Chinese as a foreign language, there is no research concerned with pronunciation learning strategies.This present research is to bridge the gap between pronunciation acquisition and learning strategies in learning Chinese as a foreign language. A self-compiled scale is used to investigate the pronunciation learning strategies employed by 49 foreign students. Then a comparative analysis is made between learner-groups from different pronunciation levels, native language backgrounds and learning environments, as well as an explorative analysis on how the strategies influence the pronunciation level.The findings indicated that:â‘ Good pronunciation learners tend to use cognitive and affective strategies more often. The difference on using strategies of representing sounds in memory, analytic imitating and emotion adjusting is statistically significant.â‘¡Learners from different native language backgrounds vary significantly on using pronunciation learning strategies, while learners start Chinese learning in different environments with different motivations do not.â‘¢The usage of cognitive strategy has a significant influence on teacher's evaluation of pronunciation.