Abstract:

Chinese tones are one of the most difficult aspects for CFL students to acquire but are of great importance for distinguishing words from each other. It has been generally observed in Chinese linguistics that lexical tones are modified by intonation and idiomatic context of the sentence. When stressing a syllable, the tone value of that syllable should be clearly realized. However, based on earlier research, stress instructions in class are almost throughout neglected. This has resulted in the weakness of CFL students’ accurate pronunciation of intonation and stress, so as to express the correct meaning to the listeners. Video self-modeling (VSM), as an innovative strategy, uses videos of oneself and only shows the positive targeted behavior, aiming at decreasing students’ frustration and the negative influence from failed accomplishments. Students watch or listen to the positive targeted behavior and imitate it; consequently, students are asked to record the best targeted behavior with their smartphones. Successful results based on this intervention have been reported by Hepting & Goldstein, 1996. Because of the easy and economic operation, students are also encouraged to consistently use VSM even after the intervention. In this study, it was investigated whether VSM is applicable to improve CFL students’ sentence-level stress. 13 beginning-level CFL students were trained in ten sessions during a period of two and a half months, as compared to 12 advanced-level CFL students who were used as the control group. Praat was used as a measuring tool to analyze the pitch contour, pitch level, and pitch registration of the students of the two groups. Results show that with the help of VSM, CFL students’ sentence-level stress has improved significantly as compared to the control group. Self-efficacy and self-determination questionnaires also showed positive feedback from the experimental group, such as thinking for long-term use in their language learning. CFL students are more aware of stress in their speaking.

Keywords:

Video self-modeling, pitch contour, pitch level, pitch registration, Chinese sentence-level stress.