Effects of language proficiency in categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones

Abstract

This study compared the perception of Mandarin Chinese lexical tones by 20 adult native Mandarin Chinese speakers and 17 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners with different levels of Chinese proficiency. We were particularly interested in confirming the effects of language experience and further assessing how Chinese proficiency might influence the perception of Mandarin lexical tones. Three types of continuum were used in identification and discrimination tasks, including tone 1 (T1)/tone 2 (T2), tone 1/tone 4 (T4) and tone 2/tone 4. Unlike the native speakers of Chinese who demonstrated clear categorical perception for all the continua, the CFL learners showed reduced accuracy in identification and discrimination results. Furthermore, proficiency data correlated with categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical tones, suggesting that categorical perception of key phonological contrasts in the second language can be considered as a reliable indicator of language proficiency.This study compared the perception of Mandarin Chinese lexical tones by 20 adult native Mandarin Chinese speakers and 17 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners with different levels of Chinese proficiency. We were particularly interested in confirming the effects of language experience and further assessing how Chinese proficiency might influence the perception of Mandarin lexical tones. Three types of continuum were used in identification and discrimination tasks, including tone 1 (T1)/tone 2 (T2), tone 1/tone 4 (T4) and tone 2/tone 4. Unlike the native speakers of Chinese who demonstrated clear categorical perception for all the continua, the CFL learners showed reduced accuracy in identification and discrimination results. Furthermore, proficiency data correlated with categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical tones, suggesting that categorical perception of key phonological contrasts in the second language can be considered as a reliable indicator of language proficiency.