ERIC Number: EJ1127295
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Jan
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2322-1291
EISSN: N/A
Computer-Aided Assessment of Tone Production: A Case of Zimbabwean Students Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language
Mushangwe, Herbert
Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, v2 n1 p63-83 Jan 2014
This study examined how technology can help in assessing and teaching Chinese tones to foreign students who are not used to tonal languages. It was an attempt to show how we can use the PRAAT software to make learners of Chinese as a foreign language realize their tonal errors. The data used was collected from the students at the University of Zimbabwe studying Chinese and this was part of a continuous assessment for the students' pronunciation of Chinese tones. This method which was used by teachers to assess students' tones was found to be easy to follow such that students could also utilize it for their own pronunciation practice. We argued that the use of computer-aided assessment makes assessment of students' tone acquisition lesser arbitrary than when the teacher merely gives comments based on his or her individual perception. This is because this assessment method gives PRAAT acoustic pictures which show the tone structures for each student; hence, both the student and the teacher can visualize the errors. Since PRAAT can provide a platform to compare the student's pronunciation with that of the native speaker and at the same time can help the teacher to explain why student's pronunciation is wrong, this paper concludes that PRAAT can be a useful tool in assessing and teaching Chinese tones.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Chinese, Second Language Instruction, Tone Languages, College Students, Pronunciation, Computer Assisted Testing, Acoustics, Computer Software, Pictorial Stimuli, Visualization, Technology Uses in Education, Educational Technology, Audio Equipment, Error Patterns
Urmia University Press. Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia, 165, Iran; Tel: +98-44-32752741; Fax: +98-44-32752746; e-mail: info@urmia.ac.ir; Web site: http://www.urmia.ac.ir/ijltr
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Zimbabwe
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A