New Approaches to Introduction of Mandarin Lexic...
To equip students with basic information about the Hanyu Pinyin system，teachers are required to introduce initials，finals，lexical tones，tone marks，possible pinyin combinations，spelling rules，etc.For some students，sounds like“j，q，x”in the pinyin system appear quite challenging，although the Victoria School of Languages Chinese Pronunciation Guide is an excellent resource in this regard.At this point the phonetic concepts，physical properties of the sounds of the language，explanations of“fundamental frequency contours，fundamental frequency values and pitch ranges，etc.”and instructions on how pinyin combinations should sound(in line with the information shown in the literature review part of this paper)need to be explained.Under the constraints of the traditional curriculum，there is little scope to cover many of the most basic aspects of the pinyin system，to say nothing about the rules on tone mark positions，etc.Foundationally，however，we regard the pinyin system as the essential tool for students to learn proper Mandarin pronunciation and later，as the best mode of keyboard input to write in characters using word processing software.In time，the pinyin system phases out as student proficiency develops，while many details such as rules on“y，w”as initials and omissions，etc.are not even touched.In fact，students do encounter difficulties with this selective approach，but it is a cost we must bear.
Tao Lin（林焘）has drawn attention to the paucity of research and study findings which limits our understanding of the nature of tones.It is therefore a real challenge to explain these tones to our students，and it remains the case that we must do this by introducing the Hanyu Pinyin system.To non-tonal language background learners the lexical tones，an intrinsic and essential element of the Mandarin pronunciation system，must be emphasized from the very beginning since，as I have already observed，a tone gives meaning to Chinese sounds and virtually every word has its tone.The dilemma is to help students to understand the essential significance of the four tones.The following is our attempt to explain the tones to English speaking background students and is intended to instruct students on how to identify and differentiate rather than on how to pronounce them.
Table 11.1 Descriptions of the tones
In the movie“Good Morning Vietnam”，when the clock turns to 6:00，Adrian Cronauer(played by Robin Williams)greets his garrison audience by saying“Goooooo...d morning，Vietnam!Hey，this is not a test.This is Rock and Roll.”His exaggerated and dramatic“uuuu...”in the“Good”，which lasted for almost three seconds，turns out to be a good example for English speakers in pronouncing an equivalent sound of“wū”in pinyin.This is a typical first tone illustration in which English speakers tend to emphasize the vowel or prolong a short vowel when making announcements.Other illustrations can be seen in making greetings from a distance，where people tend to raise their voices to a higher pitch in order to be heard.These illustrations can be regarded as corresponding elements in producing the first tone effect in English speakers’familiar utterances.The functionality of a sentence(announcing，greeting，or attracting attention)，the emotion or tone of voice(confusion，angry，assertiveness or determination)expressed in everyday utterances and the intonation(falling or rising)can be used as references or examples for pronouncing Chinese tones.
We also provide students with another tool to help them physically perceive and pronounce the tones(see Table 11.2):
Table 11.2 Pronunciation of the tones
