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Book Lexical Tone Perception in Infants and Young Children Empirical studies and theoretical perspectives

Download or read book Lexical Tone Perception in Infants and Young Children Empirical studies and theoretical perspectives written by Leher Singh and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2019-11-20 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In psycholinguistic research there has traditionally been a strong emphasis on understanding how particular language types of are processed and learned . In particular, Romance and Germanic languages (e.g. English, French, German) have, until recently, received more attention than other types, such as Chinese languages. This has led to selective emphasis on the phonological building blocks of European languages, consonants and vowels, to the exclusion of lexical tones which, like consonants and vowels, determine lexical meaning, but unlike consonants and vowels are based on pitch variations. Lexical tone is pervasive; it is used in at least half of the world’ languages (Maddieson, 2013), e.g., most Asian and some African, Central American, and European languages. This Research Topic brings together a collection of recent empirical research on the processing and representation of lexical tones across the lifespan with an emphasis on advancing knowledge on how tone systems are acquired. The articles focus on various aspects of tone: early perception of tones, influences of tone on word learning, the acquisition of new tone systems, and production of tones. One set of articles report on tone perception at the earliest stage of development, in infants learning either tone or non-tone languages. Tsao and Chen et al. demonstrate that infants’ sensitivity to Mandarin lexical tones, as well as pitch, improves over the first year of life in native and non-native learners in contrast to traditional accounts of perceptual narrowing for consonants and vowels. Götz et al. report a different pattern of perception for Cantonese tones and further demonstrate influences of methodological approaches on infants’ tone sensitivity. Fan et al. demonstrate that sensitivity to less well-studied properties of tone languages, such as neutral tone, may develop after the first year of life. Cheng and Lee ask a similar question in an electrophysiological study and report effects of stimulus salience on infants’ neural response to native tones. In a complementary set of studies focused on tone sensitivity in word learning, Burnham et al. demonstrate that infants bind tones to newly-learned words if they are learning a tone language, either monolingually or bilingually; although it was also found that object-word binding was influenced by the properties of individual tones. Liu and Kager chart a developmental trajectory over the second year of life in which infants narrow in their interpretation of non-native tones. Choi et al. investigate how learning a tone language can influence uptake of other suprasegmental properties of language, such as stress, and demonstrate that native tone sensitivity in children can facilitate stress sensitivity when learning a stress-based language. Finally, two studies focus on sensitivity to pitch in a sub-class tone languages: pitch accent languages. In a study on Japanese children’s abilities to recognise words they know, Ota et al. demonstrate a limited sensitivity to native pitch contrasts in toddlers. In contrast, Ramachers et al. demonstrate comparatively strong sensitivity to pitch in native and non-native speakers of a different pitch accent system (Limburghian) when learning new words. Several studies focus on learning new tone systems. In a training study with school-aged children, Kasisopa et al. demonstrate that tone language experience increases children’s abilities to learn new tone contrasts. Poltrock et al. demonstrate similar advantages of tone experience in learning new tone systems in adults. And in an elecrophysiological study, Liu et al. demonstrate order effects in adults’ neural responses to new tones, discussing implications for learning tone languages as an adult. Finally, Hannah et al. demonstrate that extralinguistic cues, such as facial expression, can support adults’ learning of new tone systems. In three studies investigating tone production, Rattansone et al. report the results of a study demonstrating kindergartners’ asynchronous mastery of tones – delayed acquisition of tone sandhi forms relative to base forms. In a study interrogating a corpus of adult tone production, Han et al. demonstrate that mothers produce tones in a distinct manner when speaking to infants; tone differences are emphasised more when speaking to infants than to adults. Combining perception and production of tones, Wong et al. report asynchronous development of tone perception and tone production in children. The Research Topic also includes a series of Opinion pieces and Commentaries addressing the broader relevance of tone and pitch to the study of language acquisition. Curtin and Werker discuss ways in which tone can be integrated into their model of infant language development (PRIMIR). Best discusses the phonological status of lexical tones and considers how recent empirical research on tone perception bears on this question. Kager focuses on how language learners distinguish lexical tones from other sources of pitch variation (e.g., affective and pragmatic) that also inform language comprehension. Finally, Antoniou and Chin unite evidence of tone sensitivity from children and adults and discuss how these areas of research can be mutually informative. Psycholinguistic studies of lexical tone acquisition have burgeoned over the past 13 years. This collection of empirical studies and opinion pieces provides a state-of-the-art panoply of the psycholinguistic study of lexical tones, and demonstrate its coming of age. The articles in this Research Topic will help address the hitherto Eurocentric non-tone language research emphasis, and will contribute to an expanding narrative of speech perception, speech production, and language acquisition that includes all of the world’s languages. Importantly, these studies underline the scientific promise of drawing from tone languages in psycholinguistic research; the research questions raised by lexical tone are unique and distinct from those typically applied to more widely studied languages and populations. The comprehensive study of language acquisition can only benefit from this expanded focus.

Book Teaching Chinese Language in the International School Context

Download or read book Teaching Chinese Language in the International School Context written by Jia-Fei Hong and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-11 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the learning and teaching of K-12 Chinese language in international schools. The authors of this book are scholars from teaching training institutions and universities, as well as professional frontline teachers. With a combination of the works and insights from both perspectives of theory and practice, the book presents how theories of teaching can be operated in classroom to improve the effectiveness of language teaching. It covers curriculum setting, design of teaching materials, teaching principles, methods, strategies, and evaluation. The book also discusses issues and concepts such as concept-driven learning, identity change and recognition of L1 and L2 Chinese teacher, pinyin teaching, Chinese character teaching, evaluation for learning improvement, and integration of South Asian non-Chinese speaking students into local schools. It emphasizes empirical action research methods. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing high value insights to scholars from university and teacher training institutions and teachers from kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools around the world.

Book Early Child Cantonese

Download or read book Early Child Cantonese written by Shek Tse and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-08-29 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first publication on record that systematically and comprehensively addresses the acquisition and development of Cantonese in early childhood. It draws upon evidence from up-to-date reviews of associated literature, on the outcomes of numerous research studies conducted by the authors and on the outcomes of an in-depth study of the largest corpus of early childhood Cantonese. To supplement and illuminate published trends in the literature, carefully gathered reliable and valid empirical data are critically scrutinized. The evidence is used to clarify and examine theoretical assumptions and to outline putative developmental trends in early childhood Cantonese pragmatics.

Book The Phonological Development of Five to Seven year old Cantonese English Bilingual Children in New Zealand

Download or read book The Phonological Development of Five to Seven year old Cantonese English Bilingual Children in New Zealand written by Hin Ting Henrietta Lee and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present study examined the phonological development of 15 typically developing successive Cantonese-English bilingual children aged 5;0 to 7;11 in New Zealand. The study aimed to provide normative data to aid Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) working in New Zealand in diagnosing Cantonese-English bilingual clients. Using similar methodologies from previous studies of phonological development on monolingual children (Dodd, Holm, Zhu & Crosbie, 2003) and bilingual children (e.g. Holm & Dodd, 2006), children's phonological acquisition, phonological accuracy and phonological error patterns were analyzed and compared to available data from monolingual and bilingual studies. It was found that language dominance interacted with all aspects of phonological development. For phonological acquisition, all children have acquired the majority of the phonemes in Cantonese and English. Non-Cantonese-dominant bilinguals were slower in the acquisition of Cantonese phonemes compared to their Cantonesedominant bilingual peers, whose rate of acquisition was comparable to monolingual Cantonese children. Bilinguals were comparable to local monolingual English children in the acquisition of English phonemes. For phonological accuracy, most children obtained high levels of phonological accuracy (close to or above 90%) in both languages. However, due to small sample sizes within each age group, no statistical analyses were conducted. Overall, bilinguals have caught up in terms of English accuracy to the levels of their local monolingual peers. However, Cantonese accuracy was slightly lower than monolinguals, possibly related to first language attrition. Non-Cantonese-dominant bilinguals obtained noticeably lower accuracy in Cantonese than English, while Cantonese-dominant obtained similar or higher accuracy in Cantonese than English. Analyses of phonological error patterns revealed that bilinguals produced both typical and atypical error patterns, consistent with previous studies. Some atypical patterns possibly arise from interference across the bilingual's languages. Interference typically occurred by the dominant language influencing the non-dominant language. Two atypical patterns, denasalization and orally released final nasals were generally not found in bilingual studies, possibly as a result of contact between Chinese dialects. The study highlighted the importance of considering clients' language background and language dominance in clinical work.

Book South and Southeast Asian Psycholinguistics

Download or read book South and Southeast Asian Psycholinguistics written by Heather Winskel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking volume explores the languages of South and Southeast Asia, which differ significantly from Indo-European languages in their grammar, lexicon and spoken forms. This book raises new questions in psycholinguistics and enables readers to re-evaluate previous models in light of new research.

Book Teaching Chinese Literacy in the Early Years

Download or read book Teaching Chinese Literacy in the Early Years written by Hui Li and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chinese language is now used by a quarter of the world’s population and is increasingly popular as a second language. Teaching Chinese Literacy in the Early Years comprehensively investigates the psychology, pedagogy and practice involved in teaching Chinese literacy to young children. This text not only explores the psycholinguistic and neuropsychological processing involved in learning Chinese literacy but also introduces useful teaching methods and effective practices relevant for teaching within early years and primary education. Key issues explored within this text include: The Psycholinguistics of Chinese Literacy Neuropsychological Understanding of Chinese Literacy The pedagogy of teaching Chinese as a first language The Pedagogy of Teaching Chinese as a second language Teaching Chinese literacy in early childhood settings Assessing Chinese Literacy Attainment in the Early Years With the addition of two reliable Chinese literacy scales, Teaching Chinese Literacy in the Early Years is an essential text for any student, lecturer or professional teacher who is interested in learning and teaching Chinese literacy.

Book Phonological Development and Disorders in Children

Download or read book Phonological Development and Disorders in Children written by Zhu Hua and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a collection of empirical studies on phonological acquisition and disorder of monolingual children speaking different languages (English, German, Putonghua, Cantonese, Maltese, Telugu, Colloquial Egyptian Arabic and Turkish) and bilingual children speaking different language pairs (Spanish-English, Cantonese-English, Mirpuri/Punjabi/Urdu-English, Welsch-English, Arabic-English and Putonghua-Cantonese). The research findings provide much-needed baseline information for clinical assessment and diagnosis as well as valuable evidence concerning theories of language acquisition and the role of the ambient language.

Book Papers in Laboratory Phonology V

Download or read book Papers in Laboratory Phonology V written by Michael B. Broe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-04-13 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of the series integrates core areas of laboratory phonology with psycholinguistic themes.

Book Intonation in Cantonese

Download or read book Intonation in Cantonese written by Choi-Yeung-Chang Flynn and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Modern Cantonese Phonology

Download or read book Modern Cantonese Phonology written by Robert S. Bauer and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 613 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks, as well as studies that provide new insights by approaching language from an interdisciplinary perspective. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

Book Phonological Development in Specific Contexts

Download or read book Phonological Development in Specific Contexts written by Zhu Hua and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length study of phonological development and impairment of Chinese-speaking children. It provides the first normative data on this population, which will be of value to speech and language therapists and other professionals. It also advances the notion of 'phonological saliency' which explains the cross-linguistic similarities and differences in children's phonological development.

Book The Chinese Language

Download or read book The Chinese Language written by John DeFrancis and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1986-03-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "DeFrancis's book is first rate. It entertains. It teaches. It demystifies. It counteracts popular ignorance as well as sophisticated (cocktail party) ignorance. Who could ask for anything more? There is no other book like it. ... It is one of a kind, a first, and I would not only buy it but I would recommend it to friends and colleagues, many of whom are visiting China now and are adding 'two-week-expert' ignorance to the two kinds that existed before. This is a book for everyone." --Joshua A. Fishman, research professor of social sciences, Yeshiva University, New York "Professor De Francis has produced a work of great effectiveness that should appeal to a wide-ranging audience. It is at once instructive and entertaining. While being delighted by the flair of his novel approach, the reader will also be led to ponder on some of the most fundamental problems concerning the relations between written languages and spoken languages. Specifically, he will be served a variety of information on the languages of East Asia, not as dry pedantic facts, but as appealing tidbits that whet the intellectual appetite. The expert will find much to reflect on in this book, for Professor DeFrancis takes nothing for granted." --William S.Y. Wang, professor of linguistics, University of California at Berkeley

Book Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

Download or read book Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones written by Hang Zhang and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tones are the most challenging aspect of learning Chinese pronunciation for adult learners and traditional research mostly attributes tonal errors to interference from learners’ native languages. In Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones, Hang Zhang offers a series of cross-linguistic studies to argue that there are factors influencing tone acquisition that extend beyond the transfer of structures from learners’ first languages, and beyond characteristics extracted from Chinese. These factors include universal phonetic and phonological constraints as well as pedagogical issues. By examining non-native Chinese tone productions made by speakers of non-tonal languages (English, Japanese, and Korean), this book brings together theory and practice and uses the theoretical insights to provide concrete suggestions for teachers and learners of Chinese.