Acquisition of Mandarin Tones: A Cross-Sectional Study

描述(申请人提供)：这是一项横断面研究，研究以英语为母语的成人学习者(18岁及以上)学习普通话作为第二语言(L2)时的行为和神经生理学变化。它将专注于词汇声调的习得，这是一种用于对比普通话词义的音调模式，而不是英语的语言特征。在行为层面，对非母语孤立辅音在非词汇和非交际语境中的学习进行的各种研究表明，通过适当的形式和程度的训练，成年人可以学习感知和/或产生他们的母语中没有出现的声音。然而，很少有研究研究词汇声调或超音段的学习，更没有研究这些非母语语音在实际交际环境中的使用，例如单词。近年来，一些研究考察了与语音和单词学习相关的神经变化；但这些研究要么局限于语音的实验室训练，要么局限于单词的学习，而没有考虑语音特征，特别是超段特征的贡献。虽然已经进行了跨语言研究，比较了以普通话为母语的成年人和以英语为母语的成年人感知普通话声调的行为和神经生理学反应，但没有人描述非普通话(英语)的受试者在熟练掌握普通话后的变化。本研究将涉及四个不同阶段(大学课程一至四年级)的大学生学习普通话的行为和功能磁共振实验。一般的假设是，熟练掌握第二语言将导致行为和神经生理反应更接近于母语人士。对语言发展的了解对于在中风等损伤情况下制定最有效的语言康复计划非常重要。对于成年人的康复，了解成年人是如何学习的尤为重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a cross-sectional study examining behavioral and neurophysiologic changes associated with learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language (L2) by native English-speaking adult learners (ages 18 years and up). It will focus on the acquisition of lexical tones, which are pitch patterns that are used to contrast word meaning in Mandarin, and is not a linguistic feature of English. At the behavioral level, various studies investigating the learning of isolated non-native consonants in non-lexical and non-communicative contexts show that with the appropriate form and degree of training, adults can learn to perceive and/or produce sounds that do not occur in their native language. However, there have been few studies that investigated the learning of lexical tones or suprasegmentals, and fewer yet that considered the use of these non-native sounds in actual communicative contexts such as words. In recent years, several studies examined neural changes associated with speech and word learning; but they are either confined to laboratory training of speech sounds, or the learning of words without considering the contribution of phonetic features, especially suprasegmentals. While cross-linguistic research has been done comparing behavioral and neurophysiologic responses of native Mandarin-speaking and native English-speaking adults perceiving Mandarin tones, none was conducted to describe changes in non-Mandarin (English) speaking subjects as they become proficient in Mandarin. The current study will involve behavioral and fMRI experiments on university students learning Mandarin Chinese at four different stages (years 1 to 4 of the university curriculum). The general hypothesis is that increased L2 proficiency will result in behavioral and neurophysiologic responses closer to those in native speakers. An understanding of language development is important for developing the most efficacious language rehabilitation programs in cases of injuries such as strokes. For the rehabilitation of adults, it is especially important to understand how adults learn.