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Article published In: Chinese as a Second Language (漢語教學研究—美國中文教師學會學報)
Vol. 54:1 (2019) ► pp.51–78

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What makes second language perception of Mandarin tones hard?

A non-technical review of evidence from psycholinguistic research

 | The Pennsylvania State University
Published online: 17 September 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.18009.pel
Abstract
Mandarin Chinese tones are known to be difficult for second language learners. A large body of research has examined non-native perception of tones, and may provide useful and interesting insights about the sources of tone learning difficulty for Chinese teachers and learners. However, much of the literature is in journals that may be difficult to access or written in technical language that may be hard for non-specialists to understand. This review article aims to summarize key findings from this research in an accessible fashion. I will draw on the research to answer five broad questions: (1) Why are tones more difficult for some learners than others? (2) Why are some tones more difficult than others? (3) Why are tones in words more difficult than in meaningless syllables? (4) Why are tones in context more difficult than in isolation? (5) What can we do about tone learning difficulties?
摘要
众所周知，普通话的声调对二语习得者来说非常困难。当前声调感知方面的大量研究为汉语声调教学提供了丰富的营养。然而，由于电子期刊的版权限制和学术论文的专业性，这些研究成果很难为非专业人士（对外汉语教师和汉语学习者）直接服务。本文用浅显易懂的语言综述了汉语声调感知方面的一些重要成果，并借此希望回答以下五个问题：（1）为什么声调的感知难度因人而异？（2）为什么某些声调比其他声调更难感知？（3）为什么成词声调比不成词声调更难感知？（4）为什么句子中的声调比词语中的声调更难感知？（5）降低声调感知难度的教学策略有哪些？
關鍵詞： 中文，声调，听觉，心理语言学
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • A description of Mandarin tones
  • Why are tones more difficult for some learners than for others?
    • Linguistic experience
    • Musical experience
    • Tone aptitude
    • L2 proficiency
  • Why are some tones harder than others?
  • Why are tones harder in words?
  • Why are tones harder in context?
    • Contextual tone changes
    • Speaker variation
    • Noise
  • What can we do about tone learning difficulties?
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (103)
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