- Title
- Do explicit instruction and high variability phonetic training improve nonnative speakers' Mandarin tone productions?
- Creator
- Wiener, Seth; Chan, Marjorie K. M.; Ito, Kiwako
- Relation
- Modern Language Journal Vol. 104, Issue 1, p. 152-168
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12619
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- This study examines the putative benefits of explicit phonetic instruction, high variability phonetic training, and their effects on adult nonnative speakers’ Mandarin tone productions. Monolingual first language (L1) English speakers (n = 80), intermediate second language (L2) Mandarin learners (n = 40), and L1 Mandarin speakers (n = 40) took part in a multiday Mandarin-like artificial language learning task. Participants were asked to repeat a syllable–tone combination immediately after hearing it. Half of all participants were exposed to speech from 1 talker (low variability) while the other half heard speech from 4 talkers (high variability). Half of the L1 English participants were given daily explicit instruction on Mandarin tone contours, while the other half were not. Tone accuracy was measured by L1 Mandarin raters (n = 104) who classified productions according to their perceived tonal category. Explicit instruction of tone contours facilitated L1 English participants’ production of rising and falling tone contours. High variability input alone had no main effect on participants’ productions but interacted with explicit instruction to improve participants’ productions of high-level tone contours. These results motivate an L2 tone production training approach that consists of explicit tone instruction followed by gradual exposure to more variable speech.
- Subject
- Mandarin Chinese; lexical tone; speech production; explicit instruction; phonetic variability; second language acquisition
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1463351
- Identifier
- uon:46711
- Identifier
- ISSN:0026-7902
- Rights
- This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wiener, Seth; Chan, Marjorie K. M.; Ito, Kiwako. “Do explicit instruction and high variability phonetic training improve nonnative speakers' Mandarin tone productions?” Modern Language Journal Vol. 104, Issue 1, p. 152-168, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/modl.12619. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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