Learning a Tonal Language by Attending to the Tone: An In Vivo Experiment  

Oleh:

Ying, Liu

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies (Full Text) vol. 61 no. 4 (2011), page 1119-1141.
Topik: Chinese as a second/foreign language; spoken syllable; tone; pinyin; pitch contour; in vivo experiment; learning curves; online instruction
Fulltext: Volume 61, issue 4 (December 2011), p. 1119-1141.pdf (221.91KB)

Isi artikel

Learning the Chinese tone system is a major challenge to students of Chinese as a second or foreign language. Part of the problem is that the spoken Chinese syllable presents a complex perceptual input that overlaps tone with segments. This complexity can be addressed through directing attention to the critical features of a component (tone in this case) within a complex perceptual input stimulus. We tested hypotheses based on this feature-focusing assumption in an in vivo classroom setting. First-year students in a Chinese language program at a U.S. university were trained to identify the tones of 228 syllables learned across eight lessons in the first semester. Three learning conditionswere designed to support tone learning by presenting (a) visual pitch contours that depict the acoustic shape of the tones, together with pinyin spelling of the spoken syllables (Contour+Pinyin condition); (b) numbers that represent the tones in traditional computer interface, together with pinyin spelling of the spoken syllables (Number+ Pinyin condition); and (c) visual pitch contours without pinyin spelling (Contour Only condition). Analyses of student activity logs (learning curves) and pretests and posttests showed significant effects of learning condition. The results suggested that theContour+ Pinyin condition had more error reduction in tone recognition over the activity log than the Contour Only condition and greater improvement from the pretest to posttest than the Number+ Pinyin condition. These findings point at the value of separate support for the two major components (tone and segments) of a tonal language.

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