A Study on Errors in the Acquisition of Mandarin Third tone Sandhi among Intermediate Indonesian Learners of Chinese

Abstract

This study focuses on Indonesian intermediate learners of Mandarin and examines their acquisition of Mandarin third tone sandhi. The research mainly discusses the common errors that learners make and several factors that may influence their pronunciation performance. To collect the data, two questionnaires were used to analyze learners’ performance, learning attitudes, psychological factors, as well as the influence of teaching materials and classroom instruction. The findings indicate that most learners are aware of the importance of Mandarin tones and are willing to improve their pronunciation. Many learners also show positive attitudes toward correction and pronunciation practice. However, in actual communication, learners still experience difficulties in applying third tone sandhi naturally and consistently. One possible reason is that opportunities for oral practice are still relatively limited, especially in continuous speech. In addition, the study finds that some teaching materials do not provide enough systematic explanation or sufficient exercises related to third tone sandhi. Although teachers usually explain the rules of third tone sandhi clearly in class, learners still lack enough contextualized speaking practice and targeted pronunciation training. Based on these findings, this study proposes that situational teaching activities may help learners improve their use of the third tone sandhi. By increasing speaking opportunities and using more practical communication contexts, learners may gradually become more familiar with tone sandhi in real conversations.

Keyword: third tone sandhi; Indonesian learners; situational teaching method; Chinese phonetics teaching