Factors Influencing Global Accent Ratings of Students in Mandarin Chinese Bilingual Programs

Two orthographic systems, Zhuyin fuhao (hereafter Zhuyin) and Hanyu pinyin (hereafter Pinyin), are used to represent the pronunciation of Mandarin in Chinese communities around the world. In this chapter, we probe the following question: could teaching students by using Zhuyin result in less of an English accent when speaking Mandarin than teaching students by using Pinyin? We collected data from children in schools (According to the agreements signed with the Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary and the three school boards who granted the permissions to conduct this research project, we have, in this chapter, disguised the names of the cities, the school boards, the schools that were interviewed in order to maintain anonymity.) in different regions in Canada who were taught using one of Zhuyin or Pinyin. Children in elementary school, who volunteered to participate in this project, were recorded while they were engaged in a short conversation. These recordings were assessed for accentedness by native Mandarin speakers. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to see if there is any correlation between orthographic system and degree of global accent. We collected additional data in the form of a questionnaire that the parents filled out. We found that accentedness ratings were associated with such things as hours of instruction and parental background, but not writing system.