A descriptive study of teachers' error correction of Chinese tones during Chinese as a foreign language instruction: A sociocultural perspective.

By: Ao, QunContributor(s): University of PittsburghMaterial type: TextTextDescription: 142 pSubject(s): Education, Language and Literature | Language, Linguistics | Education, Curriculum and Instruction | 0279 | 0290 | 0727Dissertation note: Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1999. Summary: It is well known that Chinese tones are most troublesome for adult beginning Chinese language learners. This study investigated how teachers can best assist students of Chinese as a foreign language in acquiring Chinese tones in the classroom by analyzing: (a) Students' tonal errors in classroom interaction and reading sentences aloud; (b) the types of teachers' error treatments; and (c) the relationship between students' tonal errors and their perspectives on error corrections and the relationship between teachers' error corrections and their perspective on tonal errors and error corrections. The corrective interaction between teachers and students was analyzed with audio-tapes of classrooms. Audio-transcripts were made, containing 15 hours of classroom interaction from 5 first year of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' classes and 2 hours of 26 students reading sentences.Summary: Results indicate that the degree of attention to speech in different settings causes variations in tonal error patterns. The students who preferred self-correction made fewer tonal errors in reading tests than did others. Linguistic explanation, such as describing the pitch contour of tones, was the least agreeable error treatment strategy for teachers and students. Modeling appropriate tones constituted the least effective but the most frequently used corrective strategy. The 5 teachers also often ignored tonal errors, expecting students to overcome their problems by memorizing Chinese tones.Summary: This study applies a Vygotskyan perspective to understand the nature of error correction as a collaborative activity. The findings show that in successful error correction teachers and students co-constructed the linguistic knowledge, moving from external corrective interaction to students' self-assistance. Based on these findings, this study suggests how teachers might strategically correct tonal errors.
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Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-09, Section: A, page: 3294.

Adviser: Richard R. Donato.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1999.

It is well known that Chinese tones are most troublesome for adult beginning Chinese language learners. This study investigated how teachers can best assist students of Chinese as a foreign language in acquiring Chinese tones in the classroom by analyzing: (a) Students' tonal errors in classroom interaction and reading sentences aloud; (b) the types of teachers' error treatments; and (c) the relationship between students' tonal errors and their perspectives on error corrections and the relationship between teachers' error corrections and their perspective on tonal errors and error corrections. The corrective interaction between teachers and students was analyzed with audio-tapes of classrooms. Audio-transcripts were made, containing 15 hours of classroom interaction from 5 first year of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' classes and 2 hours of 26 students reading sentences.

Results indicate that the degree of attention to speech in different settings causes variations in tonal error patterns. The students who preferred self-correction made fewer tonal errors in reading tests than did others. Linguistic explanation, such as describing the pitch contour of tones, was the least agreeable error treatment strategy for teachers and students. Modeling appropriate tones constituted the least effective but the most frequently used corrective strategy. The 5 teachers also often ignored tonal errors, expecting students to overcome their problems by memorizing Chinese tones.

This study applies a Vygotskyan perspective to understand the nature of error correction as a collaborative activity. The findings show that in successful error correction teachers and students co-constructed the linguistic knowledge, moving from external corrective interaction to students' self-assistance. Based on these findings, this study suggests how teachers might strategically correct tonal errors.

School code: 0178.

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