How ethnic non-Chinese students can be assisted to develop the tonal awareness of Putonghua

Abstract

Nowadays, learning Putonghua as a second or foreign language has become a hot topic, as many people have interest in knocking the door of China via learning her language. However, it is found to be very hard to master the language unless people choose to live in her land and interact with her people for a long time. One of the obstacles encountered by many learners whose mother tongue is not Chinese is the tone of Putonghua, which poses great difficulty particularly to those who come from the intonational groups. This study aimed to identify the learning difficulties encountered by ethnic non-Chinese learners when they learn Putonghua as a second language and investigate some possible methods to assist them to heighten their tonal awareness of Putonghua. It adopted the Variation Theory of learning as the theoretical framework, in which systematic patterns of variation and invariance was designed and enacted to help the learners to discern the critical features of Putonghua tones. The research study was divided into two stages. The first stage involved the observation of Putonghua teaching in a Hong Kong international kindergarten, the survey and interviews with ethnic non-Chinese learners in China, as well as a learning study to be carried out in an international primary school in Hong Kong. At the second stage, interviews were done with local ethnic non-Chinese students, to be followed by an experimental study using a self-developed computer programme to develop the tonal awareness of Putonghua of local ethnic non-Chinese students. The findings of the study shows that although certain intended patterns of variation and invariance seem to be more conducive to student learning of Putonghua tones, their effectiveness is affected by teachers’ understanding of the Variation Theory of learning in a learning study and also the cognitive load embodied in the different learning paths of the computer programme. This provides insights to the application of the Variation Theory of learning in fostering student learning, particularly to the design and enactment of patterns of variation and invariance.