Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

Hang Zhang, Ph.D. (2013), is Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics at George Washington University. She has published widely in academic journals including Second Language Research, Chinese as a Second Language, and International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

• List of TablesList of FiguresList of Selected AbbreviationsMandarin Tones1 Introduction1.1 Phonetics and Phonology of Mandarin Chinese Tones1.2 Chinese Tone Variations1.2.1 The Variants of T31.2.2 Other Tone Sandhi Processes1.3 Intonation in Chinese1.4 The Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones1.5 Organization of this Book2 Three Puzzles in Mandarin L2 Tone Acquisition2.1 Prosodic Structures of English, Japanese, and Korean2.2 Puzzles Surrounding the L2 Acquisition of Tones3 Methodology: Data Collection and Analysis3.1 Test Materials3.2 Participants and Recording Procedure3.3 Assessment of L2 Tones3.4 Data Analysis4 Coarticulation Effects in L2 Chinese Tones4.1 The Nature of Anticipatory Tone Coarticulation4.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses4.3 Results4.4 Discussion4.5 Conclusion5 Phonological Universals and the Acquisition Order of Mandarin Tones5.1 Phonological Background5.2 Results5.3 Discussion: An OT Account for the Acquisition of Identical Tone Sequences5.4 Conclusion6 Acquisition of the Third Tone6.1 The Allophones and Sandhi Rules of Tone 36.2 The Second Language Acquisition of T36.3 Methodology6.3.1 Stimuli6.3.2 Subjects and Recording Procedures6.3.3 Analysis6.4 Results6.4.1 The Error Patterns of Half-T3 and Raised-T36.4.2 Substitutions Used for Half-T3 and Raised-T36.5 Discussion6.5.1 Theoretical Implications: The Underlying Form of T36.5.2 The ‘Half-T3 First’ Method6.6 Conclusion7 Teaching Mandarin Chinese Tones7.1 Pedagogical Implications7.2 Current Prevailing Teaching Materials7.3 Sample ExercisesReferencesIndex

"This book is beyond doubt an excellent source that will surely benefit not only a community of linguists or psycholinguists who are interested in L2 acquisition but also classroom teachers and language learners with not much linguistic background." ~ Mengzhu Yan, Victoria University of Wellington, on Linguistlist (March 2019)