Study on the Ability to Make Pause-extension in Reading Aloud by Foreign Students
Name:Li Lanfang Student ID: B08164
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Sekou Conde
Minzu University of China
2008-2009 Academic Year
Abstract
Pause-extension is not only the physiological needs of pronunciation, but also the needs for better expression and understanding. Usually foreign students speak Chinese in an unnatural tone. The main reason of this phenomenon is that they can’t make pause-extension skillfully. From the angle of teaching Chinese as a 2nd language, I study the ability to make pause-extension in reading aloud by foreign students. I select some typical sentences and record the reading of these materials by foreign students and me. Using phonological software for experiment—PRAAT, I measure the time duration of the recording of foreign students’ and mine. A contrastive analysis of pauses made by foreign students and me is carried out. Basing on the datum gathered from the acoustic study, I analyze the types and reasons of errors. The main types of errors are grammatical errors, errors of parsing sense groups and prosodic errors. The main reasons of making errors are that the students don’t understand the syntactic structure and prosodic rules of sentences. They don’t understand the function of pause-extension and won’t observe the rules of it consciously.
Key Words
pause-extension; types of errors; reasons of making errors; sense of pause-extension
I.Introduction
When we speak, we don’t pause at every word or keep speaking without any stops under most circumstances. Proper pauses serve not only to reveal the structure and semantic logic of a sentence, but also to convey the attitudes and emotions of the speaker. Pauses help the listener to fully understand what he or she has heard. Kohno & Tanioka (1990) said: “ People tend to pause to catch a breath at every 7±2 chunks when they speak. It’s also necessary for the listener to remember and understand what is said.”
There may be various kinds of semantic relation between different constituents of a Chinese sentence. The relationship between verbs and nominal elements is particularly hard to define sometimes. Pauses are the boundary of different structural levels of a sentence. The elimination of the semantic ambiguity relies on the hints of pauses in many cases. For example:
妈妈说我不对。（My mother said that I was wrong.）
妈妈说我‖不对。（My mother was wrong since she scolded me wrongly.）
妈妈说：‖“我不对！”（My mother said: “ I’m wrong.”）
To choose the right place to pause is most important. If we pause at the right place, we can express what we mean more exactly. Or else the conveying of meaning would be hindered somewhat, even misunderstanding could happen. DENG Honghua(2006): “Pause is an important element of intonation and play a great role in communication. The correct understanding and using of pause can enhance the effect of expression. ”
The reasons that most foreign students’ oral Chinese sound unnatural and even strange to native speakers are very complicated. Apart from phonological errors of consonants, vowels or tones, errors of Chinese rhythm, which includes pause-extension, stress and intonation, are the main reason. Pauses between various constituents of a sentence are the very foundation of Chinese rhythm. WU Jiemin（2002）said: “Foreign students’ unnatural tune-pattern is largely due to mishandling of pause-extension and intonation.” For example:
你是老 师吗？--不，是 学生。
Foreign students would answer in this way, that is不是学生. There isn’t any pause between the negation and the rest of the sentence, which result in a meaning contrary to what he or she originally means.
LIN Tao（2001） said：“We used to focus on the consonants, vowels and tones in teaching Chinese as a 2nd language. For example, foreign students are required to differentiate the pronunciation of zh, ch, sh & z c s rather strictly. However many native Chinese in southern part of China don’t distinguish them without causing any problems in communications. We definitely ignore the teaching of stress, pause, rhythm & intonation to foreign students.”
An experiment done by JIN Lixin(2006) found that because disyllable-words dominate modern Chinese, tones are less important than boundary of syllables & rhythms in terms of differentiating meanings.
Rhythm, including stress and pause-extension is far more important than tones in the conveying of meanings, which deserves deep reflection and should be put on great emphasis in the teaching of Chinese as a 2nd language.
II.Literature Review
Rhythm is an important feature of Chinese. Pause-extension is the foundation of rhythm and has caught the attention of many linguists long ago. In 1957, LUO Changpei &WANG Jun published Outline of Ordinary Phonetics, a classic work. They pointed out that stress, time duration, speed, pause and tone quality form the rhythm of a language. They also made it clear that it’s necessary to make pause and stress when you speak because of the physiological need for breath.
In the past, linguistics put forward the term “stop”, which only reveal interval of pause in spoken language. WU Jiemin (1990) suggested that “stop” should be replaced by pause-extension, which includes pause and lengthening of a syllable in spoken language.
The acoustic feature of pause-extension is discovered through various acoustic experiments. XU Yi(1989) hold that a syllable tend to be lengthened before a stop. Through sonogram, YE Jun(1996) revealed that syllables before perceived stop are usually lengthened.
As to the relationships between pause-extension and syntax, studies in this area are quite rich. SHI Cunzhi (1956) believed that pause-extension bears relations to grammatical structures. QI Shengqiao(1956)hold that one should make pause not only within a long continuous speech but also within a simple sentence. The listener can figure out grammatical relations between words in a sentence through pauses. ZHAO Yuanren(1979)considered that potential pause can be used to distinguish whether the combination of two morphemes forms a word or a phrases. LIN Tao(1962) reckoned that the structural levels of sound and grammar are two very different kettles of fish. The structural levels of sound and grammar of the same sentence can be totally different.
However, lots of problems remain unsolved. For example: What is the system of pause-extension in Chinese? What’s the essence of grammatical pause-extension? How are the pauses for idiom? Studies on pause-extension from the perspective of teaching Chinese as a 2nd language are just beginning. Studies on foreign students’ abilities to make pause-extension in reading-aloud or speaking are much less until now.
III.Experiments on foreign students’ ability to make pause-extension
3.1 Methodology
3.1.1 Experimental Analytical Tools
PRAAT
①Measure the time duration of pause-extension of foreign students’ and my recordings respectively through the use of PRAAT
②Carry out contrastive analysis of pauses made by foreign students and I.
3.1.2 Experimental Language Materials
①sentence type---topic sentence, ambiguous sentence, sentences with idiom, sentences whose boundary of words and phrases are hard to define
②length of a sentence---9 syllables at the least and 42 at the most
③the number of sentences---11 sentences
3.1.3 Experimental Subjects
①foreign students studying in the international education college of Minzu University, ranging from elementary, intermediate to advanced level
②the writer of this paper, native speaker of Chinese
3.1.4 Experimental Requirements
①fully understand the given materials and then read them at normal speed
②requirements for recording:
sample rate：16000; speed：1411kbp; audio samples’ grade: 44kHz
3.1.5 Experimental Steps
①Record while foreign students and I read experimental language materials.
②Measure the time duration of pause-extension of foreign students’ and my recordings respectively through the use of PRAAT
③Carry out contrastive analysis of pause-extension made by foreign students and I.
3.2 Types of Errors in Making Pause-Extension by Foreign Students
Table I. Errors in Making Pause-Extension in Reading Sentences by Foreign Students
sentences
serious
errors
less severe errors
number of subjects
error ratio
sentences
serious
errors
Less severe errors
number of subjects
error ratio
（3+4）×5＝35
9
persons
10 persons
90％
要 知道，给永远比拿快乐。
9
persons
1 persons
20 persons
50%
3+（4×5）＝23
陈 刚这孩子大约是病了。
7 persons
2 persons
15 persons
60％
十 二岁的王大爷的小孙子走过来。
18
persons
18
persons
100％
学 生会认真上课的。
9 persons
2 persons
16 persons
68.8％
来吃饭的人：有的是一家人，有的是一伙年轻人，有的是做生意的。
2 persons
9 persons
19 persons
57.9％
学 生会正在准备搞活动。
我 包你们吃得满意，睡得舒服。
4 persons
6 persons
21 persons
47.6%
全班只有她考50分，弄得她怪难为情的。
6
persons
1 persons
9 persons
77.8％
那 时候的我视他们为把我从疼爱我的姑姑怀里抢走的坏蛋。
13 persons
13 persons
100％
他让自己强壮的哥哥跟着老李去扛行李。
7 persons
13 persons
53.8％
Types of errors in making pause-extension in reading sentences by foreign students are classified as follows:
3.2.1 Pauses all out of their needs for breath
Some foreign students make pause-extension all out of their needs for breath without paying any attention to the syntax or rhythm or any other elements of a sentence. If the reading materials are relatively easy, they are apt to make such mistakes. For example:
(1)
LI Fanglan：来吃饭的人(0.417sec)：有的是一家人(0.379sec)，有的是一伙年轻人(0.322sec)，有的是做生意的。
Chart 1.1“LI Fanglan：来吃饭的人…有的是做生意的。”
Subject No.3：来吃饭的人：有的是一家人，有 的是一伙年轻人(0.662sec)，有的是做生意的。
Chart 1.2 “Subject No.3：来吃饭的人…有的是做生意的。”
Subject No.3 read 19 characters without stopping and stopped before the last “yǒu de” to catch a breath. The syntax of this sentence is totally unclear through his reading.
3.2.2 Pause at every character
Some foreign students stop at and stress every character. It sounds as if they are reading separate characters instead of sentences. It’s very hard [...]
). If you have the permission, you can login now.