ABSTRACT

Adults typically struggle to perceive non-native sound contrasts, especially those that conflict with their first language. Do the same challenges persist when the sound contrasts overlap but do not conflict? To address this question, we explored the acquisition of lexical tones. While tonal variations are present in many languages, they are only used contrastively in tonal languages. We investigated the perception of Mandarin tones by adults with differing experience with Mandarin, including naïve listeners, classroom learners, and native speakers. Naïve listeners discriminated Mandarin tones at above-chance levels, and performance significantly improved after just one month of classroom exposure. Additional evidence for plasticity came from advanced classroom learners, whose tonemic perception was indistinguishable from that of native speakers. The results suggest that unlike many other non-native contrasts, adults studying a language in the classroom can readily acquire the perceptual skills needed to discriminate Mandarin tones.

 抽象的

成年人通常很难感知非母语声音的对比，尤其是那些与母语相冲突的声音。当声音对比重叠但不冲突时，同样的挑战是否仍然存在？为了解决这个问题，我们探索了词汇声调的习得。虽然许多语言中都存在声调变化，但它们仅在声调语言中作为对比使用。我们调查了具有不同普通话经验的成年人（包括不懂普通话的听众、课堂学习者和母语人士）对普通话声调的感知。天真的听众能够以高于概率的水平辨别普通话声调，并且在课堂接触仅一个月后，表现就显着提高。可塑性的额外证据来自高级课堂学习者，他们的声调感知与母语人士的声调感知没有区别。结果表明，与许多其他非母语对比不同，在课堂上学习语言的成年人可以很容易地获得辨别普通话声调所需的感知技能。