The examination of the relationship between perception and production of Mandarin tone of Kazak students

Abstract

This study aims at examination on the relationship between the perception and production of Mandarin tone by Kazak minor learners from China. The eight-day perceptual training course of Mandarin tone is designed. Perception is assessed by means of identification test. Production data is collected both at pretest and post-test, and evaluated by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The results from the perception at pretest and post-test reveal that training Kazak learners to perceive Mandarin tones has been shown to be effective, with identification improvement by 22.7%. The trainees have big difficulties in identifying tone 1. And tone 1 is more incorrectly to be perceived as tone 2 than the reverse, and tone 2 is more incorrectly to be perceived as tone 3, and vice versa. The production results show that, comparing to the pretest, identification of trainees' post-test tone productions improve by 12%, indicating significant tone production improvement after perceptual training. And acoustic analysis of the pretest and post-test productions further indicate the pitch shape and pitch height more resembles the native norm after the perceptual training, but the pitch height is still a bit lower than the native norm. These results are discussed by the means of the relationship between Kazak native speakers' perception and production of Mandarin tone.