The Acquisition of L2 Mandarin Vowels in Context

語篇中元音的二語習得

楊春生(Chunsheng YANG)；倪博洋(Boyang NI)

vowel acquisition ； Thai ； American English ； vowel inventory ； vowel similarity ； 元音習得 ； 泰語 ； 美式英語 ； 元音數量 ； 元音相似性

華語文教學研究

13卷4期（2016 / 12 / 01）

1 - 25

英文

This study examined the effect of L1/L2 vowel phonetic similarity and L1 vowel inventory size on the acquisition of L2 Mandarin vowels in context. Thai and American English L2 learners and Beijing Mandarin speakers participated in this study. The findings of this study showed that L1/L2 vowel similarity could predict the learning of some vowels (i.e., similar, identical and different vowels), but not others and the predictability based on vowel similarity was L1 specific. It was also shown that an L1 with a larger vowel inventory had advantage in acquiring an L2 vowel system over another L1 with a smaller vowel inventory. It was argued that the involvement of more dimensions in an L1 with a larger vowel inventory size may have facilitated the L2 learners in the comparison L1 and L2 vowels as well as category (non-) establishment for L2 vowels. However, the specific mechanism for such advantage begs for future studies. The findings of this study showed that it was difficult to predict the learning difficulty in acquiring L2 vowels in that so many factors are intertwined together (L1/L2 phonetic similarity, L1/L2 sound inventory size, L2 learners' proficiency level, and even individual differences). Future SLA studies should take more factors into consideration.

本文研究一、二語元音相似度以及一語元音數量對語篇中二語元音習得的影響。母語為泰語和美式英語的二語學習者參加了該研究。研究發現一、二語元音相似度只能預測某些元音的習得情況，而且這樣的預測也因一語而不同。研究同時發現元音數量多的語言使用者比元音數量少的語言使用者在習得二語元音時有優勢。本文認為元音數量多的語言需要在多維度上區分元音，因此有利於二語學習者對一語、二語的元音進行比較並確定是否需要為二語元音建立新的範疇。但是，這種優勢的具體機制還有待研究。本文發現在二語元音習得中，因為在二語元音習得中很多不同因素交織在一起，因此很難精確預測元音習得的難易。後續研究應考慮更多的影響元音習得的因素。

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