Perception of nonnative tonal contrasts by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin sequential bilinguals
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Published version
Date
2019-08-07
Authors
Chan, I. Lei
Chang, Charles
Version
Published version
Embargo Date
2020-02-07
OA Version
Citation
I Lei Chan, Charles Chang. 2019. "Perception of nonnative tonal contrasts by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin sequential bilinguals." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Volume 146, Issue 2, pp. 956 - 972. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5120522
Abstract
This study examined the role of acquisition order and crosslinguistic similarity in influencing transfer at the initial stage of perceptually acquiring a tonal third language (L3). Perception of tones in Yoruba and Thai was tested in adult sequential bilinguals representing three different first (L1) and second language (L2) backgrounds: L1 Mandarin-L2 English (MEBs), L1 English-L2 Mandarin (EMBs), and L1 English-L2 intonational/non-tonal (EIBs). MEBs outperformed EMBs and EIBs in discriminating L3 tonal contrasts in both languages, while EMBs showed a small advantage over EIBs on Yoruba. All groups showed better overall discrimination in Thai than Yoruba, but group differences were more robust in Yoruba. MEBs’ and EMBs’ poor discrimination of certain L3 contrasts was further reflected in the L3 tones being perceived as similar to the same Mandarin tone; however, EIBs, with no knowledge of Mandarin, showed many of the same similarity judgments. These findings thus suggest that L1 tonal experience has a particularly facilitative effect in L3 tone perception, but there is also a facilitative effect of L2 tonal experience. Further, crosslinguistic perceptual similarity between L1/L2 and L3 tones, as well as acoustic similarity between different L3 tones, play a significant role at this early stage of L3 tone acquisition.
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Copyright 2019 Acoustical Society of America. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Acoustical Society of America.
The following article appeared in Chan, I. Lei, and Charles B. Chang. "Perception of nonnative tonal contrasts by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin sequential bilinguals." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 146.2 (2019): 956-972, and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5120522.