Effects of linguistic experience on the perception of high-variability non-native tones

Whether tone language experience facilitates non-native tone perception is an area of research that previously yielded conflicting results, potentially because of the lack of systematical control of speaker normalization effects across studies. Under a high-variability testing condition with control...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2017-02, Vol.141 (2), p.EL120-EL126
Main Authors: Chang, Yung-hsiang Shawn, Yao, Yao, Huang, Becky H.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Whether tone language experience facilitates non-native tone perception is an area of research that previously yielded conflicting results, potentially because of the lack of systematical control of speaker normalization effects across studies. Under a high-variability testing condition with controlled speaker normalization cues, Cantonese (native controls), Mandarin (Cantonese-naive tone listeners), and English (non-tone listeners) listeners identified three Cantonese level tones. The results indicate a facilitatory effect of tone experience on non-native tone perception when normalization for inter-speaker variation is required.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4976037