A Method of Teaching English Speaking Learners to Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones
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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2018 A Method of Teaching English Speaking Learners to Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones Hui Shi Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Shi, Hui, "A Method of Teaching English Speaking Learners to Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones" (2018). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 6633. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6633 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Method of Teaching English Speaking Learners to Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones Hui Shi Dissertation submitted to the College of Education and Human Services at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum & Instruction/ Literacy Studies Sam Stack, Ph.D., Chair Ugur Kale, Ph.D. Heiko Everwien ter Haseborg, Ph.D. Joy Faini Saab, Ed.D. Xiangying Jiang, Ph.D. Department of Curriculum & Instruction/ Literacy Studies Morgantown, West Virginia University 2018 Keywords: Mandarin-Chinese Tones, tonal and non-tonal language, pedagogy, tonal production Copyright 2018 Hui Shi ABSTRACT A Method of Teaching English Speaking Learners to Produce Mandarin-Chinese Tones Hui Shi Learning Mandarin Chinese tones is a big challenge for English speaking learners. The average tonal production accuracy is reported to be about 70 percent for intermediate-level learners and 40 percent for beginning-level Chinese learners. The Chinese tonal proficiency significantly influences the learners’ communicative effectiveness, including listening and speaking, but research often overlooks tonal production. This study proposed and tested a novel method of teaching English-speaking learners to pronounce Mandarin Chinese tones. This teaching method includes a Chinese tones bookmark, and a 30-50 minutes in-class training module. The research undertook five cycles of Design-Based Research (DBR) implementations with 31 public school students, adult learners, and Chinese teachers. Two audio recordings, one pre-training and one post-training, were collected and compared through the paired samples t- tests. Interviews, surveys, and class observations were adopted to determine the participants’ attitudes toward the training and the teaching model. The results revealed that the designed teaching method was effective to improve the tonal production accuracy of English speaking K- 12 children and adult learners. In addition, the results indicated that the participants’ attitudes toward the designed method were positive. This study contributes to the current Chinese tonal teaching repertoire and presents a flexible, practical method for teachers to use when instructing students on Chinese tones. Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my father, Yingchun Shi, and my prior advisor, Dr. Patricia Obenauf. Although they were my inspiration to pursue my doctoral degree, they are unable to see my graduation. This is for them. Thank you to my academic adviser, Dr. Sam F. Stack, who guided me in this process and to my dissertation committee who kept me on track. I dedicate this dissertation to my husband, Patrick Yao, who survived my five-year study and research with taking much more family responsibilities and tolerating my unstable temper. For my mother, Zhuoxi Liu, who helped me in all things great and small, and made her way to attend my graduation ceremony from China. This dissertation is dedicated to my children, Allan, Ben, Caden, and Destiny, who managed themselves well throughout my Ph.D. study with less attention and support from their mother. iii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Sam F. Stack for the continuous support of my Ph. D study and related research, for his patience, quick response to all kinds of my concerns, motivation, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of study and research. I could not have imagined having a better advisor for my Ph.D. study. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my dissertation committee: Dr. Ugur Kale, who is my research mentor and guided me throughout the whole research process from IRB application to data collecting and analysis, to conclusion. Dr. Heiko Everwien ter Haseborg and Dr. Xiangying Jiang for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard question which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. Dr. Joy F Saab who recruited me and supported me alongside the whole process of my Ph. D. study. My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Constinia Miyoshi Charbonnette, who provided me an opportunity to join the Office of Graduate Education and Life team as a Graduate Assistant. We worked together for three years, and I learned so much during the time I work with her, not only from her immense knowledge, but also from her gold heart and personality. I thank my fellow Chinese teachers, Dr. Xinyu Zhao and Mr. Jie Lan for the stimulating discussions and for the crazy days we were working together for data collecting. In particular, I want to thank Sandra DeVault, Courtney Whitehead of Monongalia County Schools, who allowed me to conduct research in their public schools. I am grateful to Debora Nicholson, my supervisor of WV STARTALK Chinese program, and coordinator of World Languages, West Virginia Department of Education, for enlightening me the first glance of research and support from the side of WV public schools. iv My special thanks to Dr. Stephan Krashen, a well-known scholar in second language acquisition field. I met Professor Stephen Krashen at a Foreign Language Teachers Association Conference in 2017. Dr. Krashen guided me enormously on the current study. More importantly, his professional attitude on pursuing truth along with his methodology on conducting research enlightened my research. v Table of Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 2. Literature Review ……………………………………………………………………………..7 Linguistic Studies of Chinese Tones……………… ……………………………………...7 Error Analysis……….………..……………….….……………………………………...18 Pedagogy of Chinese Tones………..…………………………………………………….37 Gaps in Literature……...……………………………………………………………….. 65 Present Study….……….…………………….…………………………………………..67 3. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………69 Epistemological Considerations………………………………………………………….69 Mixed-Method of Quantitative and Qualitative……………...…………………………..70 Design-Based Research…….…………………………….……………………………...71 Research Questions…………………………………………………………………….. 73 Participants……………………………………………………………………………… 73 Data Collection and Analysis………………………………………………………….. 75 4. Results………………………………………………………………………………………84 Sample……….………………………………………………………………………… 85 DBR Processes….……………………………………………………………………... 89 Summary of DBR Cycles…………………………………………………………….. 110 Data Analysis and the Results………………………………………………………… 111 Summary……………………………………………………………………………… 119 5. Discussion………………………………..………………………………………………..120 Theoretical Implications……….…………………………………………………....... 120 vi Pedagogical Implications…………………………………………………………..…. 136 Recommendation for Future Study…….……………………………….…………….. 139 Limitations of the Study……………………………………………………………….. 140 Summary of This Study………………………………………………………………. 141 6. References……………………………..…………………………………………..………..144 7. Appendices.………………………………..………………………………………...……...157 vii List of Figures Figure 1. The front of the Chinese tones bookmark designed for younger Chinese learners….....5 Figure 2. The front of the Chinese tones bookmark designed for older Chinese learners………..6 Figure 3. The back of the Chinese tones bookmark………………………………………………6 Figure 4. Pitch level of Chinese tones………………………………………….…………………8 Figure 5. Four tones on musical scales……………………………………………………………9 Figure 6. Hierarchically organized system………………………………………………………16 Figure 7. Phonological (high and low) representation of the four tones…………………..…….17 Figure 8. Accuracy and substitution rates for focused monosyllabic words for English speakers………………………………………………………………………………...30 Figure 9: Mandarin tonal error in the developmental Process…………………………………...35 Figure 10. Singing Chinese characters………………………….………………………………….46 Figure 11. Dialogue in musical scale…...………………………………………………………..46 Figure 12. Waveforms and pitch curves produced by a native speaker and a Chinese learner……..58 Figure 13. Predictive and DBR in educational technology research…………….………………73 Figure 14. Bookmarks…….……………..……………………………………………………….78 Figure 15. Example of Finished Mandarin Chinese Tones Map for younger learners…………..79 Figure 16. The back of Mandarin Chinese tones bookmark.… ………………………………..79 Figure 17. Sample written practice………...…………………………………………………….92 Figure 18. General DBR process……..………………………………………………………….93 Figure 19. The front of the bookmark used for the teacher’s program level 1………..…………94