The Acquisition of Mandarin Prosody by American Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL)

The Acquisition of Mandarin Prosody by American Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL)
Author: Chunsheng Yang
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

Analysis of tone errors shows that the low and rising tones were the most frequent tone errors produced by the two groups of learners in their L2 Mandarin productions, regardless of the underlying tones. The patterns of tone errors in different tone sequences suggest that the learners not only had difficulty in changing the tone targets quickly in the conflicting tone sequences, they also had difficulty in changing the F0 direction quickly in the compatible tone sequences. It is argued that these tone errors were produced as a consequence of the superimposition of the L1 English utterance-level prosody over tone production by L2 learners.

The Acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language Pronunciation

The Acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language Pronunciation
Author: Chunsheng Yang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9811538093

This book is the first edited book to cover a wide range of issues related to Chinese as a second language (CSL) speech, including tone and segment acquisition and processing, categorical perception of tones, CSL fluency, CSL intelligibility/comprehensibility and accentedness, and pronunciation pedagogy. Moreover, the book addresses both theoretical and pedagogical issues. It offers an essential go-to book for anyone who is interested in CSL speech, e.g. CSL speech researchers, Chinese instructors, CSL learners, and anyone interested in second language speech.

The Acquisition of L2 Mandarin Prosody

The Acquisition of L2 Mandarin Prosody
Author: Chunsheng Yang
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2016-02-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027267634

This book examines the acquisition of L2 Mandarin prosody, a less explored area in SLA. While acknowledging that tone acquisition is one of the most important aspects in acquiring L2 Mandarin phonology, the book demonstrates that phrase- and utterance-level prosody is equally important. Specifically, this book discusses the acquisition of Mandarin lexical tones and utterance-level prosody, the interaction of tones and intonation, the acquisition of Tone 3 sandhis, the temporal differences between L1 and L2 Mandarin discourse, and the relationship between intelligibility, comprehensibility and foreign accent perception in L2 Chinese. In addition, a whole chapter is exclusively devoted to the pedagogy of L2 Mandarin prosody. Studies in this book further our understanding of speech prosody in L1 and L2 and showcase the interesting interaction of phonetics, phonology, and pedagogy in SLA. This book will be of great interest to SLA researchers and graduate students, applied linguists, Chinese linguists, and Chinese practitioners.

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Second Language Acquisition

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Second Language Acquisition
Author: Chuanren Ke
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 662
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1317367901

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Second Language Acquisition is the first reference work of its kind. The handbook contains twenty contributions from leading experts in the field of Chinese SLA, covering a wide range of topics such as social contexts, linguistic perspectives, skill learning, individual differences and learning settings and testing. Each chapter covers historical perspectives, core issues and key findings, research approaches, pedagogical implications, future research direction and additional references. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Second Language Acquisition is an essential reference for Chinese language teachers and researchers in Chinese applied linguistics and second language acquisition.

Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones
Author: Hang Zhang
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2018-07-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 900436479X

Tones are the most challenging aspect of learning Chinese pronunciation for adult learners and traditional research mostly attributes tonal errors to interference from learners’ native languages. In Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones, Hang Zhang offers a series of cross-linguistic studies to argue that there are factors influencing tone acquisition that extend beyond the transfer of structures from learners’ first languages, and beyond characteristics extracted from Chinese. These factors include universal phonetic and phonological constraints as well as pedagogical issues. By examining non-native Chinese tone productions made by speakers of non-tonal languages (English, Japanese, and Korean), this book brings together theory and practice and uses the theoretical insights to provide concrete suggestions for teachers and learners of Chinese.

Frontiers of L2 Chinese Language Education

Frontiers of L2 Chinese Language Education
Author: Yanyin Zhang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-09-30
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1000459438

Over the past four decades, learning Chinese as a second language has transformed from individual small-scale endeavors to organized mass studies worldwide. In a fast-changing world, the field of L2 Chinese language education is confronted by unprecedented challenges and opportunities. This book presents recent pedagogical practices, innovations and research in L2 Chinese language education across five continents. Bringing together a diverse range of leading researchers and educators, it showcases the latest knowledge, teaching-led research, innovative curriculum design and pedagogical practice in a variety of instructional contexts. Through a mix of overview chapters, empirical studies and critical discussions, the book addresses four key themes – formal instruction; language education technology; curriculum development; and critical overviews– and reflects the latest challenges and coping strategies for teaching and learning Chinese in an increasingly digital world. It will be essential reading for researchers, teachers and students of Chinese as a second language, as well as curriculum developers and textbook writers.

The Prosody of Mandarin Chinese

The Prosody of Mandarin Chinese
Author: Xiao-nan Susan Shen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 108
Release: 1990-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780520097506

Through acoustic analysis of Mandarin Chinese intonation, the author finds that the intonation baseline moves up when intonation is shifted from assertive to interrogative; therefore, two baselines and two intonation layers must be reckoned with. Sentence intonation affects the tonal values and the tonal shapes of intrinsic lexical tones, though not beyond recognition. Tonal changes prove to be closely related to sentence intonation, which is superimposed simultaneously onto the utterance as a whole. The author's findings support the position of the movability of the intonation baseline and rectify some widely spread traditional claims concerning Mandarin Chinese prosody.

The Sino-Tibetan Languages

The Sino-Tibetan Languages
Author: Graham Thurgood
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 1049
Release: 2016-12-08
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1315399490

There are more native speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages than of any other language family in the world. Our records of these languages are among the oldest for any human language, and the amount of active research on them has multiplied in the last few decades. Now in its second edition and fully updated to include new research, The Sino-Tibetan Languages includes overview articles on individual languages, with an emphasis on the less commonly described languages, as well as descriptions and comments on the subgroups in which they occur. There are overviews of the whole family on genetic classification and language contact, syntax and morphology, and also on word order typology. There are also more detailed overview articles on the phonology, morphosyntax, and writing system of just the Sinitic side of the family. Supplementing these overviews are articles on Shanghainese, Cantonese and Mandarin dialects. Tibeto-Burman is reviewed by genetic or geographical sub-group, with overview articles on some of the major groups and areas, and there are also detailed descriptions of 41 individual Tibeto-Burman languages, written by world experts in the field. Designed for students and researchers of Asian languages, The Sino-Tibetan Languages is a detailed overview of the field. This book is invaluable to language students, experts requiring concise, but thorough, information on related languages, and researchers working in historical, typological and comparative linguistics.