Acoustic Study Of The Acquisition Of First Level Chinese Vowels By Overseas Rwandan Students

This study,based on the theory of vowel pattern,used the methods of phonetic experiments and data analysis,to analyze Chinese first level vowels acquisition condition of overseas Rwandan students statically and dynamically.In order to summarize the characteristics of learners’ pronunciation,acquisition order and mispronunciation,the author puts forward the corresponding teaching suggestions,and provides some ideas for the Chinese vowels teaching of Rwandan students.Firstly,the paper compares the first level vowels of Chinese and Kinyarwanda in terms of vowel system and vowel pattern.Studies have shown that the first level vowels in Chinese include both dorsal vowels /?,?,?,?,?/ and apical vowels /?,?/.However,there are only dorsal vowels /?,?,?,?,?/ in the first level vowels of Kinyarwanda;Chinese vowels /?,?,?,?/ and Kinyarwanda vowels /?,?,?,?/ are similar vowels;The vowel /?/ of Kinyarwanda is pronounced later in the tongue position;the vowel /?/ has horizontal mobility;the vowel /?/ is pronounced at a higher tongue position,and the vowel /?/ is pronounced in a higher tongue position and more concentrated.Chinese vowels /?,?,?/ are marked.They are new vowels for Rwandan students,who need to establish new pronunciation ranges when they meet those vowels.Secondly,the article analyzes the speech samples of the beginner group,intermediate group,and advanced group from the three aspects of vowel pattern,phonetic accuracy and phonetic concentration,in order to summarize the phase characteristics of acquisition of first level Chinese vowels by overseas Rwandan students.The research results show that overseas Rwandan students in the beginner group have acquired the /?/.The students in the intermediate group can correctly pronounce the /?/.The students in the advanced group have fully mastered the /?,?,?/.For the vowels /?,?,?,?/,each group of learners has pronunciation errors.The specific manifestation is that the tongue position of /?/ is forward;the tongue position of /?/ is too high;the /?/ has horizontal mobility;the /?/ has no vertical mobility,and the tongue position is more forward.Thirdly,after comparing the experimental results of each group,it is concluded that the acquisition order of the first vowel in Chinese for Rwandan students is /?/>/?/>/?/>/?/>/?,?,?/.This shows that the acquisition of Chinese vowels by overseas Rwandan students is mainly affected by phonetic similarity and markedness.Vowels that are different from the learner ’s mother tongue are acquired before similar vowels,and weakly marked vowels are learned before strong marked vowels.This experimental result negated the Early Migration Theory,supported the New Migration Theory,and revised the Markedness Differential Hypothesis.Fourthly,based on the Transfer Theory,the author comprehensively compares the Chinese and mother language vowel patterns of each group of learners with the Chinese vowel patterns of Chinese students to investigate the performance and dynamic changes of Mother Tongue Transfer in the first level Chinese vowel acquisition of Rwandan students.The experimental results confirmed that,affected by the negative transfer of the mother tongue,overseas Rwandan students have phonological errors when acquiring the similar vowels /?,?,?,?/,which are not thoroughly mastered until the advanced stage of learning.With the continuation of learning,learners’ awareness of overcoming the negative transfer of the mother tongue has gradually increased.The Chinese voices learners uttered sustainably move closer to the native Chinese speakers,but they are still interlanguage voices between the native language and the target language.This article believes that for Rwandan students’ Chinese first level vowel acquisition errors,teachers should emphasize the opening of pronunciation;divide the teaching content into steps;determine the focus of teaching according to the learning period;strengthen hearing training;introduce vowel positioning pronunciation method.In actual teaching,different teaching methods should be adopted for different vowels.