scholarly journals The effects of ethnicity, musicianship, and tone language experience on pitch perception

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2627-2642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Zheng ◽  
Arthur G Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses

Language and music are intertwined: music training can facilitate language abilities, and language experiences can also help with some music tasks. Possible language–music transfer effects are explored in two experiments in this study. In Experiment 1, we tested native Mandarin, Korean, and English speakers on a pitch discrimination task with two types of sounds: speech sounds and fundamental frequency (F0) patterns derived from speech sounds. To control for factors that might influence participants’ performance, we included cognitive ability tasks testing memory and intelligence. In addition, two music skill tasks were used to examine general transfer effects from language to music. Prior studies showing that tone language speakers have an advantage on pitch tasks have been taken as support for three alternative hypotheses: specific transfer effects, general transfer effects, and an ethnicity effect. In Experiment 1, musicians outperformed non-musicians on both speech and F0 sounds, suggesting a music-to-language transfer effect. Korean and Mandarin speakers performed similarly, and they both outperformed English speakers, providing some evidence for an ethnicity effect. Alternatively, this could be due to population selection bias. In Experiment 2, we recruited Chinese Americans approximating the native English speakers’ language background to further test the ethnicity effect. Chinese Americans, regardless of their tone language experiences, performed similarly to their non–Asian American counterparts in all tasks. Therefore, although this study provides additional evidence of transfer effects across music and language, it casts doubt on the contribution of ethnicity to differences observed in pitch perception and general music abilities.

WHY ARE LEXICAL TONES DIFFICULT TO LEARN?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricky KW Chan ◽  
Janny HC Leung
Keyword(s):  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
Tone Discrimination ◽  
Level Tone

AbstractL2 sounds present different kinds of challenges to learners at the phonetic, phonological, and lexical levels, but previous studies on L2 tone learning mostly focused on the phonetic and lexical levels. The present study employs an innovative technique to examine the role of prior tonal experience and musical training on forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories. Eighty Cantonese and English musicians and nonmusicians completed two tasks: (a) AX tone discrimination and (b) incidental learning of artificial tone-segment connections (e.g., words beginning with an aspirated stop always carry a rising tone) with synthesized stimuli modeled on Thai. Although the four participant groups distinguished the target tones similarly well, Cantonese speakers showed abstract and implicit knowledge of the target tone-segment mappings after training but English speakers did not, regardless of their musical experience. This suggests that tone language experience, but not musical experience, is crucial for forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories.

scholarly journals English and Thai Speakers’ Perception of Mandarin Tones

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Li
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Lexical Tones ◽  
Identification Test ◽  
Accurate Perception ◽  
Mandarin Speaker ◽  
Mandarin Tones

<p>Language learners’ language experience is predicted to display a significant effect on their accurate perception of foreign language sounds (Flege, 1995). At the superasegmental level, there is still a debate regarding whether tone language speakers are better able to perceive foreign lexical tones than non-tone language speakers (i.e Lee et al., 1996; Burnham &amp; Brooker, 2002). The current study aimed to shed some light on this issue. Specifically, 24 adult Thai and 21 adult English speakers, who had no knowledge on Mandarin prior to participation in the study, were recruited. The participants’ accuracy in the perception of 4 Mandarin tones (T1, T2, T3, T4) was individually examined using an identification test. 288 stimuli of /ti/, /ta/, /tu/, /tʂhi/, /tʂha/, and /tʂhu/ produced in 4 Mandarin tones were prepared. The stimuli were embedded in a carrier sentence, and were produced by a female and a male native Mandarin speaker. According to the results, (1) none of the participants achieved 100% accuracy in any of the perception tests; (2) in the perception of Mandarin T1 and T4, the Thai speakers significantly outperformed the English speakers; (3) the Thai speakers and the English speakers displayed very similar degrees of difficulty in the perception of Mandarin T2 and T3; (4) the Thai participants’ most serious confusion was in the discrimination of T2-T3, whereas the English participants showed significant confusion in the identification of T1-T2 and T2-T3. The findings suggest that tone language speakers may benefit more from their L1 in the perception of foreign lexical tones than did the non-tone language speakers. However, the degree of the beneficial effect identified was limited.</p>

scholarly journals Pitch Perception in Tone Language-Speaking Adults With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders

i-Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 204166951771120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella T. T. Cheng ◽  
Gary Y. H. Lam ◽  
Carol K. S. To
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Discrimination Ability ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Adults With Asd

Enhanced low-level pitch perception has been universally reported in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study examined whether tone language speakers with ASD exhibit this advantage. The pitch perception skill of 20 Cantonese-speaking adults with ASD was compared with that of 20 neurotypical individuals. Participants discriminated pairs of real syllable, pseudo-syllable (syllables that do not conform the phonotactic rules or are accidental gaps), and non-speech (syllables with attenuated high-frequency segmental content) stimuli contrasting pitch levels. The results revealed significantly higher discrimination ability in both groups for the non-speech stimuli than for the pseudo-syllables with one semitone difference. No significant group differences were noted. Different from previous findings, post hoc analysis found that enhanced pitch perception was observed in a subgroup of participants with ASD showing no history of delayed speech onset. The tone language experience may have modulated the pitch processing mechanism in the speakers in both ASD and non-ASD groups.

Crosslanguage Differences in Tone Perception: a Multidimensional Scaling Investigation

1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson T. Gandour ◽  
Richard A. Harshman
Keyword(s):  
Multidimensional Scaling ◽  
Paired Comparison ◽  
American English ◽  
Scaling Analysis ◽  
Multidimensional Scaling Analysis ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Pitch Direction

Using an individual differences multidimensional scaling model of perception, this crosslanguage investigation seeks to determine what dimensions underlie the perception of linguistic tone, and to what extent an individual's language background (Thai, Yoruba or American English) influences his perception. Dissimilarities data were obtained from subjects' paired-comparison judgments of 13 different pitch patterns superimposed on a synthetic speech-like syllable. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the data for the total group revealed that five dimensions - interpretively labeled, AVERAGE PITCH, DIRECTION, LENGTH, EXTREME ENDPOINT and SLOPE - best summarize the perceptual structure underlying the dissimilarities data. Language subgroup variation in relative importance of these dimensions appears to be primarily related to subgroup differences in the way pitch is used to convey linguistic information. Discriminant analysis showed that most individual speakers of a tone language (Thai or Yoruba) can be easily distinguished from speakers of a nontone language (English) on the basis of their distinctive patterns of perceptual saliency for these five dimensions. Regression analysis indicated that the DIRECTION and SLOPE dimensions closely correspond to certain earlier proposed binary distinctive features of tone.

F0 patterns of tone versus non-tone languages: The case of Vietnamese speakers of English

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
Anh-Thư T Nguyễn
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Vietnamese Speakers

This article reports a study that aimed to find out whether F0 patterns of L2 English produced by Vietnamese speakers are different to those of native English speakers, whether the non-native F0 patterns are transferred from Vietnamese, and to what extent English and Vietnamese F0 profiles differ. Ten native/L1 Australian English speakers, 20 Vietnamese speakers of English (10 beginners and 10 advanced speakers) and a control group of four native/L1 Vietnamese speakers were included. The F0 profiles (F0 maximum, F0 minimum, F0 range, F0 mean and F0 standard deviation at three levels: utterance, syllable and phoneme) were obtained from a set of 10 English sentences and 20 Vietnamese utterances. The results showed that F0 patterns of beginning-level L2 English are systematically different from those of native English speakers, which can be transferred from their native tone language. Nevertheless, the advanced speakers’ ability to produce native-like F0 patterns indicates the effect of language learning experience on prosodic acquisition. The data and results of this study contribute to the understanding of the process and nature of second language acquisition.

Imperatives of Asian American Citizenship

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen D. Wu
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
Model Minorities ◽  
Asian American Identity ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Cold War

This introductory chapter describes the racial order in twentieth-century America—its evolution, consequences, and significance. Japanese and Chinese Americans, the largest ethnic Asian populations, and the two that figured most prominently in the public eye between the 1940s and 1960s, are central to this investigation. Their trajectories unfold separately in order to illuminate their distinct histories. Yet Japanese and Chinese Americans also appear in tandem to emphasize the many parallels that account for their concurrent emergence as model minorities. As a mix of cultural, social, and political history, the chapter highlights how the discursive and the material mattered for Japanese American, Chinese American, and ultimately Asian American identity formation from World War II through the “Cold War civil rights” years.

Toward Engaged and Critical Archaeologies of the Chinese Diaspora

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-82
Author(s):  
Kelly N. Fong 方少芳‎
Keyword(s):  
Asian American ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Chinese Americans ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Black Feminist Archaeology

Drawing upon the work of other archaeologists of color and the author’s personal experiences as an Asian American woman in archaeology, this chapter explores potential future directions for Chinese American / diaspora archaeologies as a community-oriented field that is critically engaged with issues of race, racism, racialization, power, capitalism, politics, and white supremacy. Particularly inspired by black feminist archaeology and interdisciplinary work with Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies, this chapter outlines five areas for building engaged and critical archaeologies of Chinese Americans and the Chinese diaspora: recruiting and retaining more Asian American archaeologists; conducting interdisciplinary work with Ethnic Studies; engaging in collaboration with community partners; practicing critical reflexivity of positionality and privilege; and participating in contemporary politics. The chapter uses examples from Isleton Chinatown and Chinese American community cookbooks to demonstrate what community-engaged, community-collaborative critical archaeologies by archaeologists of color might look like.

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