Perceptual learning of lexical tones by native speakers of English

Abstract

Whether native speakers of non-tonal languages can acquire categorical representations of lexical tones remains controversial. This study investigates the acquisition of lexical tone categories by native English speakers learning Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language by comparing the categorical perception of lexical tones between three groups of listeners: (1) native English speakers who had taken advanced Mandarin courses in colleges; (2) inexperienced native English speakers; and (3) native Mandarin speakers. Two tone continua derived from natural speech within carrier phrases were created through interpolation within two tone contrasts (T1/T4; T2/T3). Assessments of categorical perception, including an identification task and a discrimination task, were conducted on all three groups of participants. Results showed classic categorical perception of tones by native Mandarin speakers. The inexperienced English speakers performed near chance on discrimination tasks and showed significantly broader identification boundaries. The learners of Mandarin showed similar categorical perception to native Mandarin speakers with comparable identification boundaries and discrimination scores. The results indicate that native speakers of non-tonal languages can learn to perceive lexical tones categorically. Experience-based perceptual categorization and acoustic cues for tonal language learners are discussed.