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Effects of L1 tone on perception of L2 tone - a study of Mandarin tone learning by native Cantonese children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2016

XINXIN LI ,
CAROL KIT SUM TO  and
MANWA LAWRENCE NG
XINXIN LI*
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
CAROL KIT SUM TO
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
MANWA LAWRENCE NG
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
*
Address of correspondence: Xinxin Li, Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SARChinaallylxx@hku.hk
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Abstract

In the present study, the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) was tested on its applicability in child L2 lexical tone acquisition. The possible effect of L1 (Cantonese) lexical tones on L2 (Mandarin) lexical tone learning was explored. Accuracy rate and error patterns were examined with an AX discrimination task and a forced-choice identification task. Forty-nine native Cantonese-speaking students aged 8 years participated in the study. Results revealed that these children exhibited nearly perfect performance in the discrimination of Mandarin tones. However, significant tone differences were detected in the identification task. Tone 4 (T4) was identified with the lowest accuracy, and T1 with the highest. Error analysis revealed that Mandarin T2-T3 was the most confusing pair, followed by the T1-T4 pair. The inherent phonetic similarity between lexical tones in a language and the tone similarities across languages may also have contributed to perception difficulties, which could help to refine and supplement the PAM in the tonal/suprasegmental domain.

Keywords

CantoneseMandarinsecond language tone learningPAM
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 549 - 560
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the principal of the school, all children and their parents for their participation in this study.

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