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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

What makes second language perception of Mandarin tones hard?

A non-technical review of evidence from psycholinguistic research

| The Pennsylvania State University

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?

Keywords: Chinese, tones, perception, psycholinguistics
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
Published online: 17 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/csl.18009.pel
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