The gap between the perception and production of tones by American learners of Mandarin – An intralingual perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bei Yang,
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Error Distribution ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Mixed Anova ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Tonal Perception ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Better Than

AbstractLinguists have predominantly maintained that perception precedes production (Dinnsen 1983), an assertion also accepted by those studying second language acquisition (Flege 1995). However, an observation of acquisition of tones in Chinese as a second language suggests that American learners make different tonal mistakes in perception and production. This study explores tonal perception and production referring to the sound system of Mandarin, since a tone has a close relationship with an initial that is an onset and a final that is a rhyme within a syllable in Mandarin. The research instrument has 84 monosyllables that are representative according to the relationship among initials, finals and tones. Twenty-five American learners of Chinese in second-semester Chinese class and 11 learners of Chinese in fourth-semester Chinese class participated in this study. A two-way mixed ANOVA is the main statistical method used to analyze the acquisition data. The results reveal that tonal production is better than tonal perception. The error distribution of perception is influenced not only by tonal features, but also by initial features and final structures. For production, however, initial and final features do not influence tones. Therefore, the paper argues that tones are perceived at the phonological level and produced at the phonetic level and it takes L2 learners longer time to acquire phonological features of tones.

Production, conceptualization and change in distinctive featural categories

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUDITH A. GIERUT
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Clinical Treatment ◽  
Phonological Information ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Phonological Disorders ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
Phonological Change ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Better Than

This study extends prior investigations of children's abilities to conceptualize distinctive phonological features in development. The purpose was to establish the relationship between a child's productive and conceptual knowledge, and to examine its potential influence on phonological change. Six children evidencing phonological disorders (aged 3;4 to 5;7) participated in evaluations of the productive sound system and the metalinguistic ability to classify phonological information, with particular emphasis on fricatives. Then, children were enrolled in clinical treatment aimed at accurate production of fricatives. Following treatment, production and classification abilities were again tested. Results indicated that if a child's productive knowledge of distinctive featural contrasts changed following treatment, there was also a corresponding change in conceptual knowledge. The specific featural dimensions that were used to classify phonological information were either in parallel to, or in advance of, those features also used in production by the child. Conceptual knowledge was thus equal to or better than productive knowledge for these children.

Research meets practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZhaoHong Han
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Instruction And Learning ◽  
The Relationship

At the recent CLTA-S2 conference, a spirited debate occurred between critics of second language acquisition (SLA) research and researchers who embraced it. Fascinating as it was, neither camp appeared to have convinced the other, but, more important, the debate left much of the audience flummoxed. In this paper, I intend to provide a follow-up, attempting to clarify a) the relationship between research and teaching in the context of Chinese as a second language (CSL), b) misunderstandings on the part of critics over research findings, and c) potential pitfalls in interpreting the SLA literature. My goal is to encourage, as well as contribute to, further communication between the two camps, for the ultimate good of CSL instruction and learning.

The Relationship between Second and Heritage Language Acquisition: Notes on Research and Theory Building

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
Educational Issues ◽  
The Relationship

This article presents questions and areas of inquiry that should be pursued in Heritage Language Acquisition based on what has been done in Second Language Acquisition. Linguistic, social and educational issues are highlighted, and important parallels are made between the two fields.

A Literature Review on Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Yilun Yang ◽  
Liping Chen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Language Universals ◽  
Cognition And Learning ◽  
The Relationship

There are many factors influencing second language acquisition, such as learner external factors including social factors, the input of second language acquisition and the relationship between acquisition; internal factors including the transfer of language, cognition of second language and language universals, etc, which influence the psychological factors of learner's second language; individual differences include some factors in physiological emotion, cognition, and learning strategies. This article is to explore the role of learners in second language acquisition from the perspective of individual differences (age, aptitude, learning motivation).

scholarly journals Learning Simple and Complex Second Language Rules Under Implicit, Incidental, Rule-Search, and Instructed Conditions

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Implicit Learning ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Transfer Task ◽  
Explicit Learning ◽  
Complex Stimulus ◽  
Differential Effectiveness ◽  
Computerized Training ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the generalizability of claims by Reber (1989, 1993) about the implicit learning of artificial grammars to the context of adult second language acquisition (SLA). In the field of SLA Krashen (1981, 1982, 1985, 1994) has made claims parallel to those of Reber regarding the differential effectiveness of conscious learning of rules and unconscious incidental acquisition of rules. Specifically addressed are Reber's and Krashen's claims that (a) implicit learning is more effective than explicit learning when the stimulus domain is complex, and (b) explicit learning of simple and complex stimulus domains is possible if the underlying rules are made salient. One hundred four adult learners of English as a second language were randomly assigned to implicit, incidental, rule-search, or instructed computerized training conditions. Speed and accuracy of judgments of novel tokens of easy and hard rule sentence types presented during training were used as dependent measures. Results do not support the first of Reber's and Krashen's claims but do support the second. Implicit learners do not outperform other learners on complex rules, but instructed learners outperform all others in learning simple rules. Analyses of the effect of sentence type and grammaticality on learning suggest a transfer-appropriate processing account of the relationship among consciousness, rule awareness, training, and transfer task performance.

Developmental stages in receptive grammar acquisition: A Processability Theory account

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafke Buyl ◽  
Alex Housen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Grammar Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Processability Theory ◽  
Grammar Knowledge ◽  
The Relationship

This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive side of grammar acquisition, however, is necessary for a better understanding of developmental systematicity and of the relationship between receptive and productive grammar acquisition more widely, as well as for the construction of a comprehensive theory of second language acquisition (SLA). In the present exploratory study, the receptive acquisition of L2 English grammar knowledge is studied cross-sectionally within a Processability Theory (PT) framework (Pienemann, 1998, 2005b), a theory of L2 grammar acquisition which makes explicit predictions about the order in which L2 learners learn to productively process different morphosyntactic phenomena. Participants are 72 francophone beginning child L2 learners (age 6–9) acquiring English in an immersion program. The learners’ ability to process six morphosyntactic phenomena situated at extreme ends of the developmental hierarchy proposed by PT was tested by means of the ELIAS Grammar Test, a picture selection task. Overall, the developmental orders obtained through implicational scaling for the six target phenomena agreed with PT’s predictions, suggesting that similar mechanisms underlie the acquisition of receptive and productive L2 grammar processing skills.

Zero Anaphora in Second Language Acquisition:A Comparison among Three Varieties of English

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Williams
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Spontaneous Production ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Zero Anaphora ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the use of zero anaphora in the English production of three speaker groups: native speakers, second language learners, and speakers of a non-native institutionalized variety. General discourse function for zero anaphora is found to be similar across speaker groups, although in many cases, ungrammatical by prescriptive standards. In addition, there are important quantitative and structural differences between the native speakers and non-native speakers in how this device is used. The results suggest that the relationship between performance data and second language acquisition needs to be reexamined. In particular, it cannot be assumed that spontaneous production of a given form isa direct indicator of acquisition and conversely, that non-production is necessarily proof of non-acquisition.

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