L2 acquisition and processing of Mandarin tones

Wang, Yue; Sereno, Joan A.; Jongman, Allard

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511550751.024

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Angular gyrus also has been implicated in tasks involving semantic processing, word reading, number processing, and memory retrieval (see Seghier, 2013 for review), and is also a critical area related to lexical and conceptual processing (Binder & Desai, 2011;Mechelli et al, 2004;Price, 2010). Increased activation of bilateral pMTG/angular gyrus for our learners at T2 suggests that the learners are treating tonal information as lexical information that has semantic contents, consistent with previous findings with L2 learning of Chinese tones (Mei et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2003Wang et al, , 2006 and processing of tones in native speakers (Zhang et al, 2011). This pattern contrasts with the non-learners, who can only treat tonal information at an acoustic level and therefore showed more neural responses compared to the learners in left superior temporal gyrus (BA 22).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…They additionally showed reduced responses in a few regions in the right hemisphere, including middle frontal gyrus (BA 46), insula, fusiform gyrus (BA 37), middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), inferior parietal lobe (BA 40), precuneus (BA 7), putamen, parahippocampal gyrus and cuneus. The reduced responses, especially in the left hemisphere, suggest that the learners are more efficient in processing the tones as linguistic units, consistent with neuroimaging work in prosodic learning and processing (see Wang et al, 2003;Wang, Sereno, & Jongman, 2006;Zhang et al, 2011). Third, in the onset discrimination task, the learners, as compared with the non-learners, showed more activation in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus/angular gyrus (BA 39), consistent with the roles of these structures in semantic processing (see further discussion below in Section 4).…”

Section: Sound Discrimination At T2: Participants (Learners Vs Non-lsupporting

confidence: 77%

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Neural changes underlying successful second language word learning: An fMRI study

Yang

Gates

Molenaar

et al. 2015

Journal of Neurolinguistics

125

100

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a b s t r a c tA great deal of research has examined behavioral performance changes associated with second language learning. But what changes are taking place in the brain as learning progresses? How can we identify differences in brain changes that reflect successes of learning? To answer these questions, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to examine the neural activities associated with second language word learning. Participants were 39 native English speakers who had no prior knowledge of Chinese or other tonal language, and were trained to learn a novel tonal vocabulary in a six-week training session. Functional MRI scans as well as behavioral performances were obtained from these learners at two different times (pre-and post-training). We performed region of interest (ROI) and connectivity analyses to identify effective connectivity changes associated with success in second language word learning. We compared a learner group with a control group, and also examined the differences between successful learners and less successful learners within the learner group across the two time points. Our results indicated that (1) after training, learners and non-learners rely on different patterns of brain networks to process tonal and lexical information of target L2 words; (2) within the learner group, successful learners compared to less successful learners showed significant differences in language-related regions; and (3) successful learners

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Sound Discrimination At T2: Participants (Learners Vs Non-lsupporting

confidence: 77%

Neural changes underlying successful second language word learning: An fMRI study

Yang

Gates

Molenaar

et al. 2015

Journal of Neurolinguistics

125

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the posttests, in line with studies conducted by Miracle (1989), Sun (1998), Shen (1989, Wang et al (2003), and Wang, Sereno & Jongman (2006), problems with pitch height seemed to negatively impact pronunciation of Tones 0-4 more than pitch shape or contour. In general our findings from the auditory analysis confirm those of past research in that Tone 3 is highly problematic for L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese (Guo & Tao, 2008) and pitch height can be identified as the biggest obstacle in obtaining native like pronunciation of the 5 tones.…”

Section: Auditory Analysessupporting

confidence: 82%

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

Chun

Jiang²,

Meyr³

et al. 2015

JSLP

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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.

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“…Linguistic experience influences not only non-native segmental but also suprasegmental perception (Francis, Ciocca, Ma, and Fenn, 2008;Gandour, 1983;Gandour, Wong, Lowe, Dzemidzic, Satthamnuwong, Tong, and Li, 2002;Gottfried and Suiter, 1997;Wang, Jongman, and Sereno, 2006;Wayland and Guion, 2004). Many of the world's languages, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Thai, use different pitch patterns (tones) systematically to differentiate words, and these tones are often the only element that can distinguish words from each other (Yip, 2002).…”

Section: A Effects Of Language Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning

Cooper

Wang

2012

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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106

182

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Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

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L2 acquisition and processing of Mandarin tones

Cited by 26 publications

References 26 publications

Neural changes underlying successful second language word learning: An fMRI study

Neural changes underlying successful second language word learning: An fMRI study

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

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning

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