An Analysis Of German Vowels Acquired By Shanghai Dialect Speakers

This thesis studies the acquisition of German vowels by native speakers of Shanghainese,with an aim to accumulate relevant experimental data upon which theoretical observations can be made,and to inform the teaching of German to Shanghainese speakers on the basis of these observations.Both production and perception data of the L2 speakers are collected in the study,and are analyzed with reference to the data of native German speakers.It is found that Shanghainese speakers can generally distinguish between round and unrounded vowels in German.However,they show a lower accuracy in the distinction between short and long vowels and between tense and lax vowels.It is also found that Shanghainese speakers do not make as obvious a length distinction in the production of long-short and tense-lax vowel pairs as do the native speakers.Lastly,several Shanghainese speakers show a systematic substitution of the diphthong /?i/ for the German monophthong /e/,which does not exist in either Mandarin or Shanghainese.On the basis of the above findings,it is suggested that more attention be paid to pronunciation throughout the whole teaching process of German in China.For vowels like /e/,more perception and production exercises should be designed and conducted.Additionally,the concept of “tense” and “lax” could be introduced under appropriate circumstances to students so as to facilitate their acquisition of the tense-lax vowel distinction.