Abstract Tones are the most challenging aspect of learning Chinese. We study tonal acquisition for American learners of Chinese in three learning contexts: study-abroad, at-home and immersion programs. This paper explores whether and how tone production is improved in these contexts. Fifteen learners of Chinese participated in this study. They took a pre-test and a post-test. The control group contained ten native speakers. The task was a read-aloud test in Chinese. Additionally, learners filled out a language contact form. To assess students’ tonal accuracy, we conducted two kinds of analysis: a perception assessment by native Mandarin speakers and an acoustic analysis of pitch track comparison. Contextual data were coded based on the length of language contact with native speakers of Chinese. The results indicate that difficult tone combinations are context sensitive. It also reveals what strategies learners of Chinese use to produce tones similar to native speakers’ production.

中文翻译：

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不同学习情境中双音节声调的发展

摘要 声调是学习汉语最具挑战性的方面。我们在三种学习环境中研究美国汉语学习者的声调习得：留学、在家和沉浸式课程。本文探讨了在这些情况下是否以及如何改善音调产生。十五名汉语学习者参加了这项研究。他们进行了前测和后测。对照组包含十名母语人士。任务是中文朗读测试。此外，学习者还填写了语言联系表。为了评估学生的音调准确性，我们进行了两种分析：母语为普通话的人的感知评估和音高轨道比较的声学分析。语境数据是根据与母语为中文的人的语言接触时间长度编码的。结果表明困难的语气组合是上下文敏感的。它还揭示了汉语学习者使用什么策略来产生与母语者相似的声调。