Plasticity in Second Language Learning: The Case of Mandarin Tones

Wang, Tianlin; Potter, Christine; Saffran, Jenny R.

doi:10.1080/15475441.2020.1737072

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 69 publications

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“…Many times, second language learners mix the structure of the two languages (Ferguson, 1965). Not only does the difference in structure influence and impedes the language acquisition process, but also the difference in the sound patterns (Wang et al, 2020). This situation gets even more complex and complicated in the classes where students come from multi-lingual backgrounds (Mack, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Influence of Mother Tongue on English Writing: An Error-analysis Study about Grade 9 Students in Pakistan

Malik

Azam

Pathan

et al. 2022

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The influence of the mother tongue on second language acquisition is well-known. Pakistan is a multi-lingual country with scores of mother tongues, yet their influence on English language writing has not been investigated properly. This error-analysis study contributes in this regard by finding out syntactical and semantical errors committed by Pakistani students with different mother tongues. It also investigated if there were any patterned differences or similarities in error-making. Data was collected from one hundred grade 9 students from a public school in Islamabad. They belonged to five different mother tongue groups i.e. Punjabi, Pashto, Urdu, Hindko and Potohari. The findings showed that generally all five groups committed more syntactical errors than semantical ones. Overall, they were most vulnerable in tense, spelling and subject-verb-agreement. Four of those groups (

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Mother Tongue on English Writing: An Error-analysis Study about Grade 9 Students in Pakistan

Malik

Azam

Pathan

et al. 2022

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Effects of First Language Background and Learning Experience in Perceiving Mandarin Lexical Tones: Learners and Nonlearners From English- and Japanese-Speaking Backgrounds

Tsukada

Idemaru

2022

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose: This research compared individuals from two first language (L1) backgrounds (English and Japanese) to determine how they may differ in their perception of Mandarin tones (Tones 1 vs. 2 [T1–T2], Tones 1 vs. 3 [T1–T3], Tones 1 vs. 4 [T1–T4], Tones 2 vs. 3 [T2–T3], Tones 2 vs. 4 [T2–T4], Tones 3 vs. 4 [T3–T4]) on account of their L1. Method: The participants included two groups of learners of Mandarin (23 English speakers, 18 Japanese speakers), two groups of nonlearners of Mandarin (24 English speakers, 21 Japanese speakers), and a control group of 10 Mandarin speakers. A four-alternative forced-choice discrimination task that included 360 trials was presented in three blocks of 120 trials. Results: The native Mandarin group was more accurate in their tonal discrimination of all six tone pairs than all the nonnative groups. While Japanese nonlearners generally outperformed English nonlearners in their overall perception of Mandarin lexical tones, L1-based differences were less extensive for the two groups of learners. Both learner groups were least accurate on T2–T3 and most accurate on T3–T4. Conclusion: The results suggest that with classroom experience, English speakers can overcome their initial disadvantage and learn lexical tones in a new language as successfully as speakers of Japanese with classroom experience.

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Individuals With Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages

Zhu

Chen

et al. 2022

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose: Individuals with congenital amusia exhibit degraded speech perception. This study examined whether adult Chinese Mandarin listeners with amusia were still able to extract the statistical regularities of Mandarin speech sounds, despite their degraded speech perception. Method: Using the gating paradigm with monosyllabic syllable–tone words, we tested 19 Mandarin-speaking amusics and 19 musically intact controls. Listeners heard increasingly longer fragments of the acoustic signal across eight duration-blocked gates. The stimuli varied in syllable token frequency and syllable–tone co-occurrence probability. The correct syllable–tone word, correct syllable-only, correct tone-only, and correct syllable–incorrect tone responses were compared respectively between the two groups using mixed-effects models. Results: Amusics were less accurate than controls in terms of the correct word, correct syllable-only, and correct tone-only responses. Amusics, however, showed consistent patterns of top-down processing, as indicated by more accurate responses to high-frequency syllables, high-probability tones, and tone errors all in manners similar to those of the control listeners. Conclusions: Amusics are able to learn syllable and tone statistical regularities from the language input. This extends previous work by showing that amusics can track phonological segment and pitch cues despite their degraded speech perception. The observed speech deficits in amusics are therefore not due to an abnormal statistical learning mechanism. These results support rehabilitation programs aimed at improving amusics' sensitivity to pitch.

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Plasticity in Second Language Learning: The Case of Mandarin Tones

Cited by 6 publications

References 69 publications

Influence of Mother Tongue on English Writing: An Error-analysis Study about Grade 9 Students in Pakistan

Influence of Mother Tongue on English Writing: An Error-analysis Study about Grade 9 Students in Pakistan

Effects of First Language Background and Learning Experience in Perceiving Mandarin Lexical Tones: Learners and Nonlearners From English- and Japanese-Speaking Backgrounds

Individuals With Congenital Amusia Show Degraded Speech Perception but Preserved Statistical Learning for Tone Languages

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