The developmental trajectories of attention distribution and segment-tone integration in Dutch learners of Mandarin tones

Zou, Ting; Chen, Yiya; Caspers, Johanneke

doi:10.1017/s1366728916000791

Cited by 23 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…for monosyllables (Pelzl et al, 2019), and other studies have also found strong-if not completely nativelike-L2 categorization of tones among more advanced learners (Ling and Grüter, 2020;Froud, 2016, 2019;Zou et al, 2017). While overall impressive, such results are not a claim for flawless L2 tone perception.…”

Section: Three General Explanations For L2 Tone Word Processing Difficultiesmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Misidentification of Mandarin tones is common among naïve and novice learners (e.g., Wang et al, 1999;Alexander et al, 2005;Bent et al, 2006;Huang and Johnson, 2010;So and Best, 2010). For more experienced learners, tone identification and categorization abilities improve and many individuals approach native levels on categorization and identification tasks (Ling and Grüter, 2020;Pelzl, 2019;Shen and Froud, 2016;Tsukada and Han, 2019;Zou et al, 2017). Nevertheless, similarities between F0 contours among Mandarin tones can lead to confusions among some tones (e.g., in isolated syllables, Tone 3 may have a dipping contour leading it to resemble Tone 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

et al. 2021

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People who grow up speaking a language without lexical tones typically find it difficult to master tonal languages after childhood. Accumulating research suggests that much of the challenge for these second language (L2) speakers has to do not with identification of the tones themselves, but with the bindings between tones and lexical units. The question that remains open is how much of these lexical binding problems are problems of encoding (incomplete knowledge of the tone-to-word relations) vs. retrieval (failure to access those relations in online processing). While recent work using lexical decision tasks suggests that both may play a role, one issue is that failure on a lexical decision task may reflect a lack of learner confidence about what is not a word, rather than non-native representation or processing of known words. Here we provide complementary evidence using a picture-phonology matching paradigm in Mandarin in which participants decide whether or not a spoken target matches a specific image, with concurrent event-related potential (ERP) recording to provide potential insight into differences in L1 and L2 tone processing strategies. As in the lexical decision case, we find that advanced L2 learners show a clear disadvantage in accurately identifying tone mismatched targets relative to vowel mismatched targets. We explore the contribution of incomplete/uncertain lexical knowledge to this performance disadvantage by examining individual data from an explicit tone knowledge post-test. Results suggest that explicit tone word knowledge and confidence explains some but not all of the errors in picture-phonology matching. Analysis of ERPs from correct trials shows some differences in the strength of L1 and L2 responses, but does not provide clear evidence toward differences in processing that could explain the L2 disadvantage for tones. In sum, these results converge with previous evidence from lexical decision tasks in showing that advanced L2 listeners continue to have difficulties with lexical tone recognition, and in suggesting that these difficulties reflect problems both in encoding lexical tone knowledge and in retrieving that knowledge in real time.

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Section: Three General Explanations For L2 Tone Word Processing Difficultiesmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

et al. 2021

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“…This belief appears somewhat at odds with research that consistently shows beginning learners making quick gains in tone identification accuracy through focused training (e.g., Wang, Spence, Jongman, & Sereno, 1999). Similarly, while there are relatively few studies that examine more advanced L2 learners of tone languages, several suggest such learners can obtain a high degree of mastery in perceiving tones (Lee, Tao, & Bond, 2010; Zhang, 2011; Zou, Chen, & Caspers, 2016). However, these results do not necessarily rule out long-term difficulties related to L2 tone perception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Second Language Learners’ Perception of Lexical Tone Contrasts

Pelzl

Lau

Guo

et al. 2018

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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It is commonly believed that second language (L2) acquisition of lexical tones presents a major challenge for learners from nontonal language backgrounds. This belief is somewhat at odds with research that consistently shows beginning learners making quick gains through focused tone training, as well as research showing advanced learners achieving near-native performance in tone identification tasks. However, other long-term difficulties related to L2 tone perception may persist, given the additional demands of word recognition and the effects of context. In the current study, we used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) experiments to test whether perception of Mandarin tones is difficult for advanced L2 learners in isolated syllables, disyllabic words in isolation, and disyllabic words in sentences. Stimuli were more naturalistic and challenging than in previous research. While L2 learners excelled at tone identification in isolated syllables, they performed with very low accuracy in rejecting disyllabic tonal nonwords in isolation and in sentences. We also report ERP data from critical mismatching words in sentences; while L2 listeners showed no significant differences in responses in any condition, trends were not inconsistent with the overall pattern in behavioral results of less sensitivity to tone mismatches than to semantic or segmental mismatches. We interpret these results as evidence that Mandarin tones are in fact difficult for advanced L2 learners. However, the difficulty is not due primarily to an inability to perceive tones phonetically, but instead is driven by the need to process tones lexically, especially in multisyllable words.

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“…In light of previous findings on the learning of novel segmental contrasts, it is hypothesized that a similar effect of overnight consolidation will be found for the perceptual learning of Cantonese level tones by Mandarin listeners. Specifically, those listeners who are trained in the evening are expected to perform better than those who are trained in the morning in perceiving the level tones produced by a new talker and probably also by the trained talker, given a potentially greater difficulty of learning the target (three-way) tonal contrasts relative to (two-way) segmental contrasts [61–63]. As discussed above, the magnitude of the overnight consolidation effect and underlying mechanisms may differ between the identification and discrimination tasks [15,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of overnight consolidation in the perceptual learning of non-native tonal contrasts

Qin

Zhang

2019

PLoS ONE

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Sleep-mediated overnight consolidation has been found to facilitate perceptual learning by promoting learners’ generalization across talkers in their perception of novel segmental categories. Lexical tone is characterized by high variability across talkers, and displays dynamic change over time. For this reason, it remains unclear whether a similar effect of overnight consolidation would be found for perceptual learning of novel tonal contrasts. Thus, this study aims to examine whether overnight consolidation facilitates talker-independent learning of lexical tones in the identification and discrimination of novel Cantonese level tones by Mandarin listeners. Two groups of Mandarin listeners were perceptually trained either in the morning or in the evening. Listeners were trained in a tone identification (ID) task with feedback using stimuli produced by a trained talker. Their post-training changes and generalization to a novel talker were then tested in the ID and AX discrimination tasks using stimuli produced by trained and untrained talkers in three posttests following training: immediately after training, 12-hour delay, and 24-hour delay. While the evening group slept between the first and second posttests, the morning group did not. The accuracy rates in the ID task showed that the evening group showed an improved trend, predicted by their individual sleep time, in identifying the level tones produced by both the trained and untrained talkers; in contrast, the morning group showed a declining trend. The d-prime scores in the AX discrimination task did not show different patterns between the two groups. The finding of sleep-related identification changes over time suggests that overnight consolidation might have facilitated tone learning of stimuli produced by the novel talker and eventually facilitated the formation of a more talker-independent representation of novel tone categories in long-term memory. The results are discussed in light of the features of lexical tones to shed light on the mechanism of phonetic learning.

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The developmental trajectories of attention distribution and segment-tone integration in Dutch learners of Mandarin tones

Cited by 23 publications

References 51 publications

Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

Advanced Second Language Learners’ Perception of Lexical Tone Contrasts

The effect of overnight consolidation in the perceptual learning of non-native tonal contrasts

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