A Study on the Errors in the Tone Acquisition of Chinese Double Character Words by Iranian International Students

With the increasing interactions between Iran and China, the number of Iranian students learning Chinese has seen significant growth. Despite this enthusiasm, Iranian learners frequently encounter notable challenges in mastering the tonal system of Mandarin Chinese, particularly in two-character words. This study utilizes a comprehensive phonetic experiment involving error analysis theory, contrastive analysis, and interlanguage theory to investigate tonal errors among ۳۸ Iranian students across various proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced). Results indicate that error frequency is significantly influenced by tonal combinations and learners' language proficiency. Specifically, tonal combinations involving high-level (Yin Ping) followed by falling tone (Qu Sheng) and rising tone (Yang Ping) followed by third tone (Shang Sheng) exhibited the highest error rates, while combinations involving consecutive high-level tones were least problematic. Learners' proficiency levels also showed a clear correlation with tonal accuracy, highlighting negative transfer from Persian phonetic systems as a primary cause of tonal inaccuracies. Finally, practical corrective strategies are proposed, including enhanced auditory training methods, systematic comparison of phonetic systems, and targeted practice through audio software. These findings contribute valuable insights into pedagogical approaches tailored specifically for Iranian learners of Chinese.

کلیدواژه ها:

learning Chinese ، two-character words ، tonal errors ، error analysis ، corrective strategies