El aprendizaje de las oclusivas del español por alumnos sinohablantes de distintos perfiles dialectalesestudio acústico y perceptivo

Zusammenfassung

This thesis investigated the acquisition of Spanish stop consonants by twenty Chinese learners from two different L1 dialectal backgrounds, which are Mandarin Chinese and Wu dialect of Chinese, and from two levels of experience. It focuses mainly on the distinction between voiced and voiceless stops, since the latter do not exist in Mandarin Chinese but exist phonemically in the Wu dialect of Chinese. This study aims to describe the production and perception of Spanish stops by these groups of learners experimentally, investigate the role of L1 dialectal profile and experience in learning, and discuss the relationship between production and perception. In the acoustic analysis, the parameters of VOT and F0 are considered when the stops are placed in the absolute initial position and the parameters of the spectrographic and temporal properties of the closure and F0 when the stops are intervocalic or post-nasal. In the perceptual experiments, the cues examined are VOT and F0 when the stops are in the absolute initial position, and closure duration and F0 of intervocalic stops. The results reveal both generalities shared by Chinese-speaking learners of all dialect profiles and levels of experience and characteristics unique to each learner group. At the status of the twenty learners, the confusion of voicing manifests itself considerably in both perception and production since, in most individuals, voiceless and voiced Spanish voiceless stops are not differentiated in the acoustic parameters studied, and the effectiveness of the perceptual cues is also limited. Native learners of the Wu dialect show a more satisfactory learning result in the acoustic parameters of vowel F0 and closure duration and more effective use of vowel F0 as a perceptual cue. Advanced-level learners present higher degrees of correctness in most of the parameters studied. However, neither dialectal profile nor experience plays a decisive role in acquisition. Perception and production are closely related, but it is impossible to determine whether there is an order of precedence between them.