An Experimental Study of Spanish Learners’ Language Transference in Pronouncing Chinese Vowels

Abstract

Based on the vowel pattern, an experimentis designed to summarize and compare theChinese vowel pattern articulated by Spanishstudents whose first foreign language is Englishand second foreign language is Chinese, and thenative Chinese speakers. The aim of this study isto investigate the transference of mothertongue and the first foreign language in thelearning of a second foreign language. It isfound that the mother tongue and the firstforeign language both have the impact ontransferring the vowel pronunciation to thesecond foreign language. The conditions ofinterference of mother tongue are relativelystricter. Compared with the transference ofmother tongue, the transference condition ofthe first foreign language is stricter. Theconstruction of vowel pattern in interlanguageis in accordance with the internal law ofchildren’s acquisition of mother tongue.