Acquisition of L2 Mandarin Chinese tones with learner-created tone visualizations

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of 35 Mandarin Chinese learners who (1) created pitch curves of their spoken word tones and (2) compared their pitch curves with those of native speakers while practicing pronunciation. Following a pretest, the learners received training for 20-25 minutes weekly over nine weeks and took a posttest. Two types of data analyses were performed. First, native speakers of Mandarin auditorily rated the pretests and posttests. The ratings revealed that learners' pronunciation of tones improved between pretest and posttest. Second, acoustic analyses of the learners' recordings were conducted, and the learners' production was compared with that of native speakers. Results indicated that students' pronunciation of some tones improved in the posttest. The postsurveys indicated that two-thirds of the participants found viewing pitch curves helpful. This study confirms previous research but suggests that acoustic analyses complement auditory analyses with more precise indications of L2 learners' tonal difficulties.

Do Explicit Instruction and High Variability Phonetic Training Improve Nonnative Speakers’ Mandarin Tone Productions?

“…Third, our results from the low variability condition may have partly been driven by speaker‐specific idiosyncrasies. Thus, like Chun et al.’s (, ) study, our study cannot determine how much learning (or lack thereof) was driven by the low phonetic variability in the stimuli versus input from only one female talker's productions. Future work will need to carefully tease apart these two accounts.…”

“…Whereas Chun et al.’s (, ) results suggest a null effect of instructional method, it is important to note that the tested participants were already familiar with Mandarin tones given their multiple quarters of L2 classroom instruction. Presumably all of the students tested had previously undergone some form of tone training in their classroom learning.…”

“…With respect to RQ1, L1 English participants explicitly trained may outperform those not explicitly trained given that explicit instruction may draw participants’ attention to the F0 contour and its phonological role. If an effect is observed, this effect size may be relatively small given Chun et al.’s (, ) null findings. Productions of Tone 1 and Tone 4 may be produced more accurately than productions of Tone 2 and Tone 3 given that the former tones are typically acquired before the latter tones (e.g., Yang, ) and that L1 English speakers are initially more sensitive to tone height than tone contour (e.g., Huang & Johnson, ).…”

Research Methods for Investigating Technology for Language and Culture Learning

“…Their groundbreaking Cultura model has been used for two decades with great pedagogical success and has been researched extensively (e.g., Chun, 2014). Research on online intercultural exchanges or telecollaboration began with more quantitative analyses of email, forum discussions and text chats, and has moved to more qualitative, contextualized, discoursebased analyses of the processes of such exchanges and how cultural understandings are expressed by participants over time (Chun, 2015).…”

“…A variety of ethnographic techniques were used, e.g., participant observation, reviewing the actual email data as well as emails from students containing feedback on the exchange, questionnaires and interviews with students, a researcher's reflexive journal, and feedback from a partner teacher. In addition, he suggested action research as a method for this type of research, a recommendation echoed by Müller-Hartmann (2012) and Chun (2015).…”