Wang, Y. & Spence, M. M. (1999). Training American listeners to perceive Mandarin tones. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106(6), 3649–3658.
Presentation: Chris
Summary: Belinda
According to previous studies, training has shown to be effective in identification of non-native segmental distinctions. In this study, the authors intended to investigate whether this phenomenon can be broadened into suprasegmental levels. Native English speakers were recruited to do tests and trainings on Mandarin tones. The participants were asked to undergo a pre-test, training sessions for two weeks, a post-test, and a retention test. Results showed that significant progress was made after training on new stimuli by a familiar talker (18% increase) and by a new talker (25% increase). Moreover, the retention test showed that the improvement was retained even after six months (21% increase from the pre-test). Progress was found in all tonal combinations except for Tone 1 and Tone 4. The authors believed this is due to the effect of prosodic markedness. Tone 1 and Tone 4 are comparable to the English unmarked or stressed condition. Also, after training, the participants’ ability to distinguish between Tone 2 and Tone 3 increased the most. In conclusion, auditory training at the suprasegmental level was demonstrated to be effective.
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