SECOND LANGUAGE LEXICAL REPRESENTATION AND PROCESSING OF MANDARIN CHINESE TONES

This dissertation investigates second language (L2) speech learning challenges by testing advanced L2 Mandarin Chinese learners’ tone and word knowledge. We consider L2 speech learning under the scope of three general hypotheses. (1) The Tone Perception Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to perceive auditorily. (2) The Tone Representation Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to represent effectively. (3) The Tone Processing Hypothesis: Tones may be difficult for L2 listeners to process efficiently. Experiments 1 and 2 test tone perception and representation using tone identification tasks with monosyllabic and disyllabic stimuli with L1 and advanced L2 Mandarin listeners. Results suggest that both groups are highly accurate in identification of tones on isolated monosyllables; however, L2 learners have some difficulty in disyllabic contexts. This suggests that low-level auditory perception of tones presents L2 learners with persistent long-term challenges. Results also shed light on tone representations, showing that both L1 and L2 listeners are able to form abstract representations of third tone allotones. Experiments 3 and 4 test tone representation and processing through the use of online (behavioral and ERP) and offline measures of tone word recognition. Offline results suggest weaknesses in L2 learners’ long-term memory of tones for specific vocabulary. However, even when we consider only trials for which learners had correct and confident explicit knowledge of tones and words, we still see significant differences in accuracy for rejection of tone compared to vowel nonwords in lexical recognition tasks. Using a lexical decision task, ERP measures in Experiment 3 reveal consistent L1 sensitivity to tones and vowels in isolated word recognition, and individual differences among L2 listeners. While some are sensitive to both tone and vowel mismatches, others are only sensitive to vowels or not at all. Experiment 4 utilized picture cues to test neural responses tied directly to tone and vowel mismatches. Results suggest strong L1 sensitivity to vowel mismatches. No other significant results were found. The final chapter considers how the three hypotheses shed light on the results as a whole, and how they relate to the broader context of L2 speech learning

Mandarin influence on Shanghainese fricatives

Shanghainese, a once-dominant language spoken in Shanghai, China, has been facing rapid language loss since the designation of Mandarin Chinese as the national language in 1956. Subsequently, language use has shifted towards Mandarin on most occasions and this study aims to investigate the contact-induced segmental variation in Shanghainese

Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Show Persistent Deficits for Lexical Tone Encoding in Picture-to-Word Form Matching

People who grow up speaking a language without lexical tones typically find it difficult to master tonal languages after childhood. Accumulating research suggests that much of the challenge for these second language (L2) speakers has to do not with identification of the tones themselves, but with the bindings between tones and lexical units. The question that remains open is how much of these lexical binding problems are problems of encoding (incomplete knowledge of the tone-to-word relations) vs. retrieval (failure to access those relations in online processing). While recent work using lexical decision tasks suggests that both may play a role, one issue is that failure on a lexical decision task may reflect a lack of learner confidence about what is not a word, rather than non-native representation or processing of known words. Here we provide complementary evidence using a picture-phonology matching paradigm in Mandarin in which participants decide whether or not a spoken target matches a specific image, with concurrent event-related potential (ERP) recording to provide potential insight into differences in L1 and L2 tone processing strategies. As in the lexical decision case, we find that advanced L2 learners show a clear disadvantage in accurately identifying tone mismatched targets relative to vowel mismatched targets. We explore the contribution of incomplete/uncertain lexical knowledge to this performance disadvantage by examining individual data from an explicit tone knowledge post-test. Results suggest that explicit tone word knowledge and confidence explains some but not all of the errors in picture-phonology matching. Analysis of ERPs from correct trials shows some differences in the strength of L1 and L2 responses, but does not provide clear evidence toward differences in processing that could explain the L2 disadvantage for tones. In sum, these results converge with previous evidence from lexical decision tasks in showing that advanced L2 listeners continue to have difficulties with lexical tone recognition, and in suggesting that these difficulties reflect problems both in encoding lexical tone knowledge and in retrieving that knowledge in real time

High Variability Orthographic Training: Learning words in a logographic script through training with multiple typefaces

We tested whether naturally occurring visual variability—specifically typefaces—would help people generalize word learning to typefaces they had never seen before. In Chinese, thousands of unique written characters must be learned item-by-item, and differentiated from similar-looking characters. Participants (n=190) with no previous Chinese experience learned 24 Chinese characters in one of two training groups: the Single-Typeface group trained using only one of three Chinese typefaces; the Variable-Typeface group trained using all three. Everyone completed two training and testing phases. During Definition Training, they saw each character six times and learned to associate it with an English definition (水 – water). After training, participants were tested on their accuracy in providing definitions for the characters. During Form Training, participants chose the characters they had previously learned from a display that included a trained character and a visually similar distractor (水 vs 永). After training, they were tested on their speed/accuracy in choosing the learned characters. At testing in both phases, half of the words were presented in a familiar typeface, half in a novel typeface. Results showed significant interactions between training and testing conditions in both phases, with a significant effect of training in the Form testing phase: Single-Typeface training resulted in faster responses for familiar typefaces, but much slower responses for novel typefaces; in comparison, Variable-Typeface training resulted in better generalization to novel typefaces. These results suggest that typeface variability can influence how effectively people generalize knowledge during the initial stages of Chinese character learning

Advanced second language learners of Mandarin show persistent deficits for lexical tone encoding in picture-to-word form matching

A psycholinguistic study of the lexical tone abilities of advanced second language learners of Mandari