The effect of visual information on non-native speakers' perception of Cantonese tones

Abstract

This study examines the effect of tone marks on the perception of 5 difficult Cantonese tone pairs that have high perceptual similarity: high-rising (25) versus mid-rising (23), mid-level (33) versus low-level (22/11), low-falling (21) versus low-rising (23), low-falling (21) versus low-level (22/11), and low-rising (23) versus low-level(22/11). Native speakers of American English and native speakers of Mandarin participated in a categorial AXB pre-test, a categorial AX training, and a categorial AXB post-test. Half of the subjects received iconic symbols (㐂 ⌉ for high-rising (25), ㌷ for mid-level (33), 㐂 for low-falling (21), 㐂 ㌷ for low-rising (23), and 㐂 for low-level (22/11)) as feedback in the training (Auditory-Visual training group) while the other half did not (Auditory). Preliminary results showed that both language groups improved their discrimination of all the tone pairs and that Mandarin speakers received higher percent response than English speakers in the post-test. AV subjects and A subjects, regardless of language groups, did not differ significantly in percent correct response in the post-test. Reaction time data suggested that AV subjects responded faster on the pair high-rising (25) versus mid-rising (23) than A subjects, regardless of language groups, and that Mandarin speakers responded faster than English speakers in the post-test.