Doctoral Dissertation Research: Linguistic Uses of Fundamental Frequency in Mandarin and English: Implications for Second-language Speakers

在Janet Dean Fodor博士的指导下，Tanya Viger女士将为她的博士论文收集数据，内容是第二语言学习者所说的英语和普通话的韵律特征。这项研究的目的是确定语音的声学特性，这些特性可能对被认为是非本国口音或外国口音有影响。以前对第二语言语音能力的研究侧重于个体语音，但最近的研究发现，句子韵律中的音高和时序也有助于非母语口音。英语和普通话在音高轮廓的使用上有很大的不同。英语使用基音轮廓线来标记短语边界和传达句子类型(例如，疑问句、陈述句)。普通话是一种声调语言，其基音轮廓将一个词与另一个词区分开来。通过比较声调语言和非声调语言，可以确定第二语言中韵律的使用如何受到母语中音高轮廓的语言功能的影响。受控的英语和普通话句子集将由学习英语的台湾普通话母语者和学习普通话的北美英语母语者阅读。将对录音进行声学分析，以确定诸如在短语边界处的音调轮廓的方向、定时和斜率之类的属性。这项研究对心理语言学理论和语言教育学都具有重要意义。它将为理解第二语言习得的韵律方面以及母语经验影响学习的方式提供新的数据和理论构思。随着全球互动需要用非母语进行更多的交流，语言教学变得越来越重要。然而，韵律训练很少被强调，尽管非母语韵律是导致讲话被认为带有外国口音和难以理解的主要原因。本研究所获得的知识可用于第二语言教学和语言学习软件中韵律教学单元的开发。

Under the direction of Dr. Janet Dean Fodor, Ms. Tanya Viger will collect data for her doctoral dissertation on the prosodic features of English and Mandarin as spoken by second-language learners. The goal of this research is to identify acoustic properties of speech that may contribute to what is perceived as non-native or foreign accent. Previous research on second-language phonological competence has emphasized individual speech sounds, but recent studies have found that the pitch and timing in sentence prosody also contributes to non-native accent. English and Mandarin differ radically in their use of pitch contours. English uses pitch contours to mark phrase boundaries and convey sentence type (e.g., question, statement). Mandarin is a tone language in which pitch contours distinguish one word from another. Comparing a tone language with a non-tone language makes it possible to determine how learners' use of prosody in a second language is affected by the linguistic function of pitch contours in their native language. Controlled sets of English and Mandarin sentences will be read by native speakers of Taiwan Mandarin learning English, and by native speakers of North American English learning Mandarin. The recordings will be acoustically analyzed to determine properties such as the direction, timing and slope of the pitch contours at phrase boundaries. Measurements will then be compared across the utterances produced by native and non-native speakers of each language.This research is significant both for psycholinguistic theory and for language pedagogy. It will contribute new data and theoretical constructs for understanding the prosodic aspects of second-language acquisition, as well as the ways that learning is influenced by native language experience. Language pedagogy is a matter of increasing importance as global interactions call for more communication in non-native languages. Yet, prosodic training is rarely emphasized even though non-native prosody is a major cause of speech being perceived as foreign-accented and difficult to comprehend. The knowledge gained from this research can be applied in the development of prosodic instruction units for use in second-language teaching and language-learning software.