Chin‐Chin Chin
Chin Tseng , Alice Lee
seng Alice Lee
Graduate Institute of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, y
National Taiwan Normal University Aim for the Top University Plan, Ministry of Education, Taiwan Being able to distinguish tones is a key element for learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language.
ƒ The principal aim of the online Mandarin h
l
f h
l
d
Chinese perceptual test is to understand how p
p
learners of Mandarin Chinese identify the language s four tones and its correlated language’s four tones and its correlated factors.
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previous research did not come to a i h did t t conclusion about how L2 learners acquire M d i t
Mandarin tones.
ƒ aside from a learner’s L1 language and g g
prior experience, factors other than g
influence, such as subject ,
j
crosslinguistic
major, attitude and motivation also g
contribute to learning L2 tones.
ƒ large scale of data collection and data processsing
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An online perceptual test of Mandarin tones is designed for the collection of L2 learners designed for the collection of L2 learners' perceptual data. We collected data from a total 206 participants in this study. 75 participants p
p
y 75 p
p
identified themselves as tonal speakers, 91 as p
,
4
nontonal speakers, while 40 chose other. The participants were university students in the US and Vietnam, learning Mandarin Chinese at g
the time they took the experiment. The test contains a questionnaire and 20 test items.
The results show that tonal speakers achieved significantly higher accuracy rates in identifying Mandarin tones and their response time was significantly shorter than f
l h
h
nontonal speakers. p
ƒ Most identification errors for tonal speakers occurred for Tone 1, while Tone 2 had the most errors for nontonal speakers. ƒ
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Correlation analysis shows that majoring in Chinese is positively correlated with their test score. Regarding attitude and motivation f
factors, the more important one valued h
l d
tones, the better he/she performed. The p
more the student wanted to master Chinese tones, the better he/she performed.
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Stimuli
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Stimuli Each tone was recorded in a professional studio. Figure 4 shows the representation of the four stimuli (T1 to T4). The stimuli were checked by four native speakers of y
p
Mandarin for the appropriateness of representing the four tones in Mandarin Chinese Each tone was copied five times Chinese. Each tone was copied five times, and randomly arranged into the 20 test
items.
Figure 4: Graph of T1 to T4 converting F0 into Log representation ƒ
Each item is played twice. Subjects were told that response time would also affect their final score, meaning the less time spent answering the questions correctly would add h
l
ld dd
p
points to their final score. After hearing the g
[a] sound, they were asked to identify the correct tone. After completing an item, the subject clicked on the “next” button to continue to the next item.
continue to the next item
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Based on the number of correct responses, the mean scores of 75 tonal speakers and 91 nontonal speakers were calculated and compared using independent sample t‐test. d
d
d
l
In addition, we calculated the percentage of p
g
accuracy for each test item based on the performance of each group. One Way
performance of each group. One‐Way‐
ANOVA was then used to test the difference between each tone.
between each tone
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Tonal speakers achieved significantly higher accuracy rates (t=5.533 df=94.174, P<0.01) in identifying Mandarin tones. ƒ
The difference in response time between the two groups reached significant level (t=‐4.251 df=152.853, P<0.01).
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The test score of Tone 2 is significantly different from other tones among nontonal speakers. F (3,16) = 3.271 , p
p<0.05. 5
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no significance between the four tones . This might be no significance between the four tones This might be because the accuracy for all four tones was close to 100%. Tonal speakers seem to have a much better command when it comes to identifying Tone 2.
comes to identifying Tone 2
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We found that tonal language speakers were better at y
y g
p
y
correctly identifying tones in terms of speed and accuracy of their responses than nontonal language speakers. ƒ
non‐native learners’ ability to identify the tones can be y
y
significantly improved after a short period of learning. ƒ
nontonal
o to a spea
speakers also demonstrated their ability to achieve e s a so de o st ated t e ab ty to ac e e
fairly high scores after they took Mandarin classes for three months. ƒ
This research project was sponsored by the Ministry of p
y
Education in Taiwan (NTNU's Aim for the Top University Project). ƒ
Special thanks to Lu Feng
p
g Technology Inc. for the test gy
platform support. ƒ
Spec a t a s to
Special thanks to L. Lab Inc. for the test platform support. ab c o t e test p at o suppo t