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Man Gao¹ Chun Zhang²

This study analyzes error patterns in Mandarin tone perception among Danish, Finnish, and Swedish university students, aiming to enhance teaching methods in Nordic countries. Research explores the influence of native languages on Mandarin tone learning. Findings suggest students have challenges with distinguishing tone 2 and excel at identifying tones 3 and 4. Factors such as pitch movements in native languages impact learners' perception. Implications for Mandarin teachers are discussed.

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Man Gao¹ Chun Zhang²

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  1. Teaching Mandarin Tones to University Students in Nordic Countries-- Analysis of error patterns in a perception study by Danish, Finnish and Swedish students • ¹Dalarna University, Sweden • ²Aarhus University, Denmark Man Gao¹ Chun Zhang²

  2. Background • Dramatic increase in number of students studying Chinese in Nordic countries • One major challenge: four lexical tones • Urgent need for effective teaching methodology for tones in Nordic countries • Understanding of tone perception and production by learners • Understanding of native language’s (e.g. Danish, Finnish, Swedish) influence on lexical tone learning

  3. Introduction • Lexical tones of Mandarin Chinese Time-normalized pitch contours of the four Mandarin tones produced by a native speaker Stylized representation (Chao) 5 Hz 2 1

  4. Findings from Previous StudiesPerception of Mandarin tones • Kiriloff (1969) and Chen (1997): English-speaking learners often confused Tone 2 and 3 in perception • Kiriloff (1969): Tone 4 is easiest to identify, followed by Tone 1, Tone 3 and Tone 2 • Broselow, Hurtig, Ringen (1987) • Tone 4 is least difficult to identify when read in isolation and final position • Hao (2007, 2012) • Tone 1 (99%) and Tone 4 (96%) are least difficult to identify, Tone 2 (83%) and Tone 3 (81%) are more difficult

  5. BackgroundSwedish • Swedish classified as a ‘word accent language’ (Bruce, 1977), ‘pitch-accent language’ (McCawley, 1978) or ‘tonal accent language’ (Hirst & Cristo, 1998). • Pitch movements over disyllabic words lexically contrastive; but not for monosyllabic words

  6. BackgroundDanish • Danish – one of the North Germanic languages. Danish and Swedish both belong to East Scandinavian sub-branch. • Prosodic feature - stød • Stød/non-stød distinction roughly parallels Swedish Accent I/Accent II distinction (Grønnum et al., 2013) læser /ˈlɛːsɐ/ "reader“ vs. læser /ˈlɛːˀsɐ/ "reads“ • Intonation in Danish (Tøndering, 2003): • Steeply falling pitch contour -- declarative sentences • Falling or flat pitch contour.

  7. BackgroundFinnish • Finnish is a non-tonal language. • Word tone is not distinctive in Finnish, unlike Swedish. • Intonation in Finnish • Most common intonation pattern in ’non-emotional’ Finnish is descending pitch contour. (Iivonen, 1998; Suomi et al. ,2008)

  8. Research Goals • How well are Mandarin tones perceived by learners from Nordic countries? • Influence of learners native language on learning Mandarin tones. • Implications to teachers of Mandarin Chinese.

  9. MethodsParticipants • Danishuniversity students enrolled in true-beginnerChinesecourses • 13 students (5F/8M), studiedChinese under 6 months • Finnish university students enrolled in true-beginnerChinese courses • 10 students (7F/3M),havestudiedChinese under 6 months • Swedish university students enrolled in true-beginner Chinese courses • 15 students (9F/6M), studiedChinese under 6 months

  10. Task I: Identifyingtone in isolation Task 2: Identifyingtone in context

  11. Result-1Tone in isolation * Average Accuracy Percentage of Danish Students

  12. Result-1Tone in isolation * Average Accuracy Percentage of Finnish Students

  13. Result-1Tone in isolation Average Accuracy Percentage of Swedish Students

  14. Result-1Comparison

  15. Perception of Tone in IsolationSummary • Danish, Finnish and Swedish students display overall highly similar pattern in perception of Mandarin tones, with minor variations • It is much more challenging to perceive Tone 2 (rising tone) correctly than T3 and T4 (falling tone) • Tone 3 (low falling) is easy to identify correctly, unlike English-speaking learners.

  16. Nordic students vs. English students • Tone perception by English students (Kiriloff, 1969; Broselow et al., 1987; Hao, 2007) • Tone 3, Tone 2 >> Tone 1, Tone 4 • Nordic students seem to display error pattern that is quite different from English-speaking students when perceiving Mandarin tones

  17. Effect of native language • Influence of the native language on the perception of a foreign language has consistently proven to be significant in previous studies (Odlin, 1989; Jenkins & Yeni-Komshian, 1995; Flege, 1995; Best, 1995) • Falling pitch contour are commonly seen in languages spoken in Nordic countries • Both Swedish and Danish have prosodic features that distinguish meaning between words, and phonologically they are represented as HL (falling pitch contour) • Both Danish and Finnish are reported to have falling intonation pattern at sentence level • Danish, Finnish and Swedish students are more sensitive to tones with falling contour (i.e. Tone 3 and Tone 4).

  18. Result-2Tone in context * Average Accuracy Percentage of Danish Students

  19. Result-2Tone in context Average Accuracy Percentage of Finnish Students

  20. Result-2Tone in context Average Accuracy Percentage of Swedish Students

  21. Result-2Comparison

  22. Perception of Tone in ContextSummary • Danish, Finnish and Swedish students also display highly similar pattern when perceiving Mandarin tones in context • Tones in context are much more challenging than those in isolation, average accuracy rate under 60% • All four tones are about equally difficult, though students achieve slightly higher scores with Tone 1 and Tone 4 syllables • Results can be explained in terms of shortened duration, tone co-articulation and influence of students’ native language.

  23. Teaching Mandarin tones to students from non-tonal language background • Take students’ native language into consideration when planning teaching / pronunciation drills. • Use both listening and pronunciation drills • Practicingtones in context: vowel – syllable – disyllabic /trisyllabicwords – phrases – sentences • Use different methods to explain four lexical tones • Graphic material • Contrast with students’ native language

  24. Tak!Kiitos!Tack!谢谢!

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