The discrimination of Mandarin Chinese alveolo‐palatal fricative and affricate contrasts by American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers

This study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of second language (L2) speech which give rise to the perception of a foreign accent. Japanese speech samples were collected from American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers ( n = 16 in each group) studying Japanese. The L2 participants and native speakers ( n = 10) provided speech samples modeling after six short sentences. Segmental (vowels and stops) and prosodic features (rhythm, tone, and fluency) were examined. Native Japanese listeners ( n = 10) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent. The analyses predicting accent ratings based on the acoustic measurements indicated that one of the prosodic features in particular, tone (defined as high and low patterns of pitch accent and intonation in this study), plays an important role in robustly predicting accent rating in L2 Japanese across the two first language (L1) backgrounds. These results were consistent with the prediction based on phonological and phonetic comparisons between Japanese and English, as well as Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The results also revealed L1-specific predictors of perceived accent in Japanese. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature that examines sources of perceived foreign accent.

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Turn-Taking and Disagreement: A Comparison of American English and Mandarin Chinese

Contrastive Pragmatics ◽

10.1163/26660393-bja10019 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-31

Author(s):

Weihua Zhu ◽

Diana Boxer

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

American English ◽

Contextual Factors ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Strong Disagreement ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Intercultural Encounters ◽

Similarities And Differences

Abstract This study compares turn-taking and disagreement behaviors in spontaneous conversations in American English and Mandarin Chinese. The English and Chinese speakers observed some turn-taking rules and employed weak disagreement, but differed in the deployment of extended concurrent speech and strong disagreement. Analysis of the Chinese speakers’ reactions reveals nothing negative. This was confirmed by the Chinese speakers’ viewpoints that were explicitly stated in follow-up interviews, which signal that they perceived the practice of extended concurrent speech and strong disagreement in the collected conversations as politic. Furthermore, the similarities and differences between the speakers’ turn-taking and disagreement behaviors appear to be constrained by contextual factors. This discloses the interplay of context, practice, and perception. These findings can raise our awareness of potential issues that might occur in intercultural encounters and the importance of understanding cross-cultural pragmatic differences to avoid miscommunication.

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Similar frequency of the McGurk effect in large samples of native Mandarin Chinese and American English speakers

Experimental Brain Research ◽

10.1007/s00221-015-4324-7 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 233 (9) ◽

pp. 2581-2586 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

John F. Magnotti ◽

Debshila Basu Mallick ◽

Guo Feng ◽

Bin Zhou ◽

Wen Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

American English ◽

Mcgurk Effect ◽

English Speakers ◽

Similar Frequency ◽

Large Samples ◽

American English Speakers

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The use of discourse markers but and so by native English speakers and Chinese speakers of English

Pragmatics ◽

10.1075/prag.27.4.01liu ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 479-506 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Binmei Liu

Keyword(s):

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Communicative Competence ◽

Oral Proficiency ◽

Discourse Markers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Oral Discourse ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.

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English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica ◽

10.1159/000510940 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Yilan Liu ◽

Sue Ann S. Lee

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Language Production ◽

First Language ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Potential Effect ◽

English Speakers ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Chinese Learners ◽

Chinese Learners Of English

Introduction: Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate nasalance scores of speakers of different languages, little research has examined the nasalance characteristics of second language learners. Objective: The goal of the current study was to examine whether English nasalance values of Mandarin Chinese speakers are similar to those of native English speakers, examining the potential effect of the first language on the nasalance scores of the second language production. Methods: Thirty-two adults (16 Mandarin Chinese speakers and 16 native English speakers) with a normal velopharyngeal anatomy participated. Nasalance scores of various speech stimuli were obtained using a nasometer and compared between the 2 groups. Results and Conclusions: Chinese learners of English produced higher nasalance scores than native English speakers on prolonged vowel /i/ and /a/, the syllable “nin,” and non-nasal sentences and passages. The first language effect on nasalance of the second language found in the current study suggests the importance of linguistic consideration in the clinical evaluation of resonance.

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