Mandarin Pronunciation Mechanism:Consolidating a...
With the ideal at this beginning stage that it is the students who take the lead to understand and explore the tones，class activities must be designed and implemented accordingly.This is manifested in many concrete ways.For example，we need to pause for a moment whenever we play a model soundtrack and ask students to repeat and imitate softly to themselves.This tiny detail，innovative and unique in our approach，is designed to encourage students to develop their sense of the tones，how to differentiate and how to reproduce them based on their understanding and perception.We feel this self-directed process helps students to systematically approach(following the sequence of first，second，third and fourth tones)the tones resulting in a reproducible manner.In this way，repetitive practice helps learners to establish their tonal pronunciation mechanism，which is a novel concept.Initial class practice sets an example and a structure for their own self-study and practice.This is especially important for acquiring a new set of skills，such as Mandarin pronunciation，which are hard to describe and explain.
A tone identifying exercise is one way to assess if students have effectively established a basic Mandarin pronunciation mechanism.The exercise of single syllable tones in isolation 5 in the appendix assumes that students have already been able to sound the four tones of one single pinyin combination to themselves on their own.In this exercise，each model soundtrack segment contains about 10 pinyin combinations with a pause after each word.The pause is designed for students to repeat what they hear，sound out the four tones of the given word on their own，compare the sound they remember with one of their own four choices，then decide and mark a tentative tone to the word they have just heard.These activities are not excessively demanding as students only need to remember a single sound with the tone.The process provides a context for students to explore the Mandarin tone system in the expectation that they are establishing a Mandarin pronunciation mechanism.The segment is played three times and the first two times are as explained above.At the third repetition，after having heard the target sound three times and self-sounding the four tones three times，students should be able to make their own decision upon the tone.At this stage we invite students to discuss their tone choices with partners but encourage them to stick to their judgements.In cases where students disagree，we will play the controversial sounds again and ask them to go through the routine again to verify their answers for themselves.In this process，students necessarily discuss their understanding，perceptions and observations about the tones，and this discussion is a valuable tool in establishing and developing the new set of skills.In their initial encounter with thetones，students have imitated the tones every time after the cue and their mimicking process has extended from a single tone to the four tones of a single syllable.On reflection，these nonchallenging murmuring practices enable students to figure out how to produce the perceived and intended sounds in the right tones within their capacity.Traditionally when students undertake beginner listening exercises to identify tones，their answers are purely，if not wildly，random guesses since they have little idea at this stage how to differentiate the tones.As we have explained our approach so far，at thisstage our students are also still guessing but their answers are more on the“educated guess”side because they can refer to their own“tone scale”.Our experiences show the time，thought and effort invested in these processes are worthwhile.
The exercise on page 5 culminates in checking the students’own choices of the tones.A conventional approach to examining tones perception asks the student to report the answer in English，but our approach is to ask students to provide their answers in Mandarin pronunciation in the tones they have perceived.Since students have been listening to the tones，repeating them，and sounding the four tone choices to themselves in the exercise，if we let them answer in English，we waste a valuable learning opportunity.Naturally，the students’response，without any instruction on how to pronounce the tones，is likely to be imperfect.We thus encourage students to use hand movements in addition to their verbal tone vocalization to communicate their tone perception.We do not expect proper Mandarin pronunciation，but we do expect to discover how students have been getting on in their self-experiment with the tones.In the case of some more difficult words，we play the sounds again and provide students with another opportunity to listen and come to a decision on their own.This first week listening exercise focuses upon the process of understanding，interpreting，perceiving，and imitating.The exercises are designed to let students explore their interpretation of the tones，and to discuss their perceptions with fellow students.We have observed that in the process of establishing a listening mechanism，student confidence is enhanced.
The tone identifying exercise on double-syllable pinyin combinations in the appendix is a typical second week listening activity.Within the constraint of our curriculum we do not have the ability to focus upon the second and third tone combinations which are claimed by researchers and practitioners to be notoriously difficult for beginners，instead weinclude context friendly words found in the beginning lessons from our textbook.
The distinction between random and educated guesses in student tone identification and our insistence on students pronouncing the sounds of their perceived tones in exercise answers is significant.Krashen’s input and output hypothesis states that we acquire language by understanding messages，that“comprehensive input”(CI)is the essential environmental ingredient in language acquisition.Comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition but is not sufficient.The acquirer must be“open”to the input，i.e.have a low affective filter.Also，the input needs to contain“i+1”，an aspect of language that the acquirer has not yet acquired but that he or she is ready to acquire.The simple output hypothesis(SO)claims that producing language，speaking，or writing along，without feedback or interaction，will result in language acquisition.Hence the skill building hypothesis(SB)，or the“Learning Becomes Acquisition”hypothesis claims that we acquire a language by first consciously learning the rules or items，and then，through output practice，often in the form of drills and exercises，we make these rules“automatic”.I suggest that Krashen’s hypotheses provide a theoretical basis of support for the approach that we are advocating.Krashen proposed that input and output are separate learning processes:the positive reception，understanding，and analysis of new information is one and the production of a verbal or written output is the other.He also claimed that，if a learner produces a language product，language acquisition takes place without feedback and interaction.By repeatedly imitating，sounding，matching the model sounds(the input)and eventually uttering the pinyin pronunciation(the output)，students are exploring and establishing their own initial Mandarin pronunciation mechanism.Tonal acquisition has taken place where the input sounds，originally verbal by native speakers but in the form of audio，and the student verbal sound output，as perceived and reproduced in their copying of the input sounds，are of the same form，though the accuracy levels vary.Both the input and output processes are taking place within a short timeframe，which helps to enhance accuracy.
As we have already noted in the literature review，there are many variables that contribute to the skills of tonal reproduction，such as fundamental frequency values(tone pitches)，tone contours，and tone ranges among others.These concepts are quite abstract，difficult to explain to students and even more difficult to quantify and to measure.Yuanren Zhao in 1980 claimed that rather than pitch contours，it is the pitch ranges which pose a challenge to non-tonal background beginners，while other scholars have claimed that both present a challenge.Fundamental frequency values are not mentioned，to say nothing about pronouncing them appropriately.In other words，what our students have established here is a very basic model of the Mandarin pronunciation mechanism.