PEMAHAMAN TERHADAP CHOO-ON DALAM KALANGAN PELAJAR CINA YANG MENGAMBIL BAHASA JEPUN DI UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This study is conducted with the aim to understand the comprehension of Malaysian Chinese native speakers of Japanese language learner in National University of Malaysia (UKM). The framework of the study was established based on the Constrative Analysis Theory in second language acquisition. The theory was formulated with a claim that the similiarity and the difference of linguistics attributes of the learners’ native language and the second language have significant impact towards the learners’ second language acquisition. There are two objectives for this study, first is to analyze the similarities and the differences in the phonetic system particularly long and short vowel between Japanese language and Mandarin. Second objective is to investigate the Chinese students’ ability to differentiate the long and short vowel in Japanese language. The respondents consist of Chinese speaking Malaysian student in UKM who are learning Japanese language as second or foreign language at the university. The instrument to investigate the respondents’ ability is the error analysis method in long and short vowel Japanese language listening task. The findings show that the respondents find it difficult to differentiate the long and short vowel of /a/, /i/, /u/ compared to the other vowels. Specifically, for the respondents, the long and short vowel of /a/ in the front of a word is more difficult to differentiate that the long and short /a/ vowel in the middle of a word. On the contrary, the respondents incline to make mistake towards long and short vowel of /i/ and /u/ that is situated in the centre of a word. The findings of the study contribute to the understandings of Japanese language teacher in Malaysia who usually have students from various background such as Malay and Chinese. The teacher might not be aware of the different background of language and culture which are different from the language and culture of the teacher themselves.