iCALL corpus: Mandarin Chinese spoken by non-native speakers of European descent

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy F. Chen ◽  
Rong Tong ◽  
Darren Wee ◽  
Peixuan Lee ◽  
Bin Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
European Descent

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

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
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.

Perception of English narrow and broad focus by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese

2013 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 4249-4249
Author(s):  
Ratree Wayland ◽  
Chelsea Guerra
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers

scholarly journals Relative Contribution of Auditory and Visual Information to Mandarin Chinese Tone Identification by Native and Tone-naïve Listeners

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 856-876
Author(s):  
Yueqiao Han ◽  
Martijn Goudbeek ◽  
Maria Mos ◽  
Marc Swerts
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mcgurk Effect ◽  
Auditory Speech ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Lip Reading ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Visual Materials ◽  
Chinese Subjects

Speech perception is a multisensory process: what we hear can be affected by what we see. For instance, the McGurk effect occurs when auditory speech is presented in synchrony with discrepant visual information. A large number of studies have targeted the McGurk effect at the segmental level of speech (mainly consonant perception), which tends to be visually salient (lip-reading based), while the present study aims to extend the existing body of literature to the suprasegmental level, that is, investigating a McGurk effect for the identification of tones in Mandarin Chinese. Previous studies have shown that visual information does play a role in Chinese tone perception, and that the different tones correlate with variable movements of the head and neck. We constructed various tone combinations of congruent and incongruent auditory-visual materials (10 syllables with 16 tone combinations each) and presented them to native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and speakers of tone-naïve languages. In line with our previous work, we found that tone identification varies with individual tones, with tone 3 (the low-dipping tone) being the easiest one to identify, whereas tone 4 (the high-falling tone) was the most difficult one. We found that both groups of participants mainly relied on auditory input (instead of visual input), and that the auditory reliance for Chinese subjects was even stronger. The results did not show evidence for auditory-visual integration among native participants, while visual information is helpful for tone-naïve participants. However, even for this group, visual information only marginally increases the accuracy in the tone identification task, and this increase depends on the tone in question.

Tone and intonation in Mandarin babytalk to presyllabic infants: Comparison with registers of adult conversation and foreign language instruction

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mechthild Papoušek ◽  
Shu-Fen C. Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction

ABSTRACTSix native speakers of Mandarin Chinese recorded 140 preselected utterances in three role-play contexts that differentially elicited registers of babytalk to presyllabic infants (BTP), foreign language instruction (FLI), and adult conversation (AC). Sound spectrograms were used to obtain 10 measures of fundamental frequency (Fo) patterns for comparisons among the three registers. In FLI, the speakers expanded Fo patterns in time and Fo range in comparison with AC. They clarified lexical tonal information and seemed to reduce suprasegmental information. In BTP, the speakers raised peak and minimum Fo, reduced the rate of Fo fluctuations, and increased the proportion of terminal rising contours. The speakers reduced, neglected, or modified lexical tonal information in favor of simplified and clarified intonation contours. The significance of the results is discussed in relation to tone acquisition in children and to a universal intuitive didactic competence in caretakers.

scholarly journals Training Japanese Speakers to Identify Nasal Codas of Mandarin Chinese

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Ruining. Yang ◽  
Hiroaki. Nanjo ◽  
Masatake. Danstuji
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Early Research ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Training Process ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Experimental Group

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of high variability training on “-n” and “-ng” in Mandarin Chinese. 46 Japanese native speakers who study Mandarin Chinese as a second foreign language at a university in Japan were divided into one experimental group and one control group. Participants assigned to the experimental group trained themselves using software, which was developed in our early research. Participants in the control group took Chinese lessons normally. Identification tasks (ITs) were conducted before and after the training. After 12 sessions, the average identification accuracy of nasal codas increased 7.1% (p < .05) in the experimental group, however, decreased 1.2% (p > .05) in the control group. Results of the training process prove that the training was effective for some participants, while had little effect on other participants. From the questionnaires, we found that there is a disagreement between the participants’ subjective ability to identify nasal codas and the actual identification accuracy in ITs. Participants underestimate their ability to identify “-n” and “-ng” before training and overestimate their ability to identify “-n” and “-ng” after training. We made a formula to predict the accuracy of ITs (y) in the last 4 training sessions (x): y = 2.13x2 - 2.35x + 1.23. This formula will help participants to grasp the training process and predict their identification ability.

scholarly journals EEG Correlates of Long-Distance Dependency Formation in Mandarin Wh-Questions

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Wen Lo ◽  
Jonathan R. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Anterior Negativity ◽  
With Memory

Event-related potential components are sensitive to the processes underlying how questions are understood. We use so-called “covert” wh-questions in Mandarin to probe how such components generalize across different kinds of constructions. This study shows that covert Mandarin wh-questions do not elicit anterior negativities associated with memory maintenance, even when such a dependency is unambiguously cued. N = 37 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese read Chinese questions and declarative sentences word-by-word during EEG recording. In contrast to prior studies, no sustained anterior negativity (SAN) was observed between the cue word, such as the question-embedding verb “wonder,” and the in-situ wh-filler. SANs have been linked with working memory maintenance, suggesting that grammatical features may not impose the same maintenance demands as the content words used in prior work.

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