University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The effectiveness of tonal spelling in learning Mandarin Chinese

Lundelius, Jay Osborn

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22931

Description

Title
The effectiveness of tonal spelling in learning Mandarin Chinese
Author(s)
Lundelius, Jay Osborn
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
MacDonald, William
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Education, Language and Literature
  • Language, Linguistics
  • Language, Modern
Language
eng
Abstract
"Students frequently have difficulty in remembering tones of Chinese words accurately. Many textbooks use ""Pinyin,"" (the romanization system of mainland China) which uses superscript marks to indicate tones. Yuen Ren Chao (1964, p. 11) asserted that using spelling to indicate tone served as a more powerful tool for tone recall, and he consequently developed Gwoyeu Romatzyh (""G.R."") for instruction. G.R. has not enjoyed widespread popularity because of its complexity and its lack of correspondence to Pinyin. Therefore, I developed a hybrid romanization, ""TSP"" (Tonally Spelled Pinyin), which vastly simplifies the number of rules governing tonal spelling conventions and eases the inevitable transition to Pinyin. Research tracked two sections of Beginning Chinese, one using Pinyin, the second using TSP. Based on the three exams given throughout the semester, the TSP section performance averaged 86.9% while the Pinyin section's averaged 70.9%. A t test analysis indicated a significance beyond the 0.010 level."
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22931
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1991 Lundelius, Jay Osborn

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