BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16827-6531e64ad4ddbb09721e4a8f2458b019@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20261017T062227Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180907T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180907T103000 SUMMARY:Eric Pelzl (Penn State) - What Is and Isn’t Hard About Learning Lexical Tones: Research with Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Chine se DESCRIPTION:What Is and Isn’t Hard About Learning Lexical Tones: Researc h with Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Chinese\n\nAnyone w ith experience learning a new language likely knows something about the challenge of adapting to unfamiliar sounds. Tone languages like Mandarin Chinese present an interesting instance of this challenge. In Mandarin\ , pitch (F0) patterns on syllables are an integral part of words. For ex ample\, the syllable ma with a high-level tone is ‘mom’\, with a rising tone is ‘hemp’\, with a low tone is ‘horse’\, and with a falling tone is ‘scold’. For learners from non-tonal language backgrounds\, tones prese nt several challenges: learners of course need to (1) hear the differenc es between tone categories (high\, rising\, low\, falling)\, but they al so need to treat these new categories as essential for word identity by (2) encoding them in memory\, and (3) using them in real-time word recog nition. Cute examples like ma might make it seem as if the integral natu re of tones will be obvious to learners\, but in practice syllables with a neat set of four-way tone contrasts are rare. For word recognition in natural speech\, most tones on most words are neither necessary (due to context) nor sufficient (due to homophones).\n\nWith these thoughts in mind\, I will present a series of behavioral and ERP studies examining t he tone abilities of advanced (i.e.\, successful) L2 learners of Mandari n. How well do these successful L2 learners master tones and what diffic ulties\, if any\, do they encounter? We will see that advanced learners perform with virtually the same mastery as native speakers on challengin g tone identification tasks\, but that the introduction of minimal conte xt (a second syllable) disproportionately affects learners. When it come s to (tone) word recognition\, the same learners who excel at tone ident ification display wide variability. While some individuals excel\, learn ers as a group are often insensitive to tone cues—even when they know th e appropriate tones for the tested words. At the same time\, learners of ten lack explicit tone knowledge for frequent words\, suggesting they ar e not able to efficiently encode lexical tone representations in long-te rm memory. Nevertheless\, as noted\, all the learners included in this r esearch are rightly described as successful. Considering this\, I will f inish by considering whether accurate L2 tone perception even matters at all.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/eric-pelzl-pe nn-state-what-is-and-isnt-hard-about-learning-lexical-tones-research-wit h-advanced-second-language-learners-of-mandarin-chinese/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

What Is and Isn’t Hard About Learning Lexical Tone s: Research with Advanced Second Language Learners of Mandarin Chinese

Anyone with experience learning a new language likely know s something about the challenge of adapting to unfamiliar sounds. Tone l anguages like Mandarin Chinese present an interesting instance of this c hallenge. In Mandarin, pitch (F0) patterns on syllables are an integral part of words. For example, the syllable ma with a high-level tone is ‘m om’, with a rising tone is ‘hemp’, with a low tone is ‘horse’, and with a falling tone is ‘scold’. For learners from non-tonal language backgrou nds, tones present several challenges: learners of course need to (1) he ar the differences between tone categories (high, rising, low, falling), but they also need to treat these new categories as essential for word identity by (2) encoding them in memory, and (3) using them in real-time word recognition. Cute examples like ma might make it seem as if the in tegral nature of tones will be obvious to learners, but in practice syll ables with a neat set of four-way tone contrasts are rare. For word reco gnition in natural speech, most tones on most words are neither necessar y (due to context) nor sufficient (due to homophones).

With these thoughts in mind, I will present a series of behavioral and ERP studies examining the tone abilities of advanced (i.e., successful) L2 learners of Mandarin. How well do these successful L2 learners master tones and w hat difficulties, if any, do they encounter? We will see that advanced l earners perform with virtually the same mastery as native speakers on ch allenging tone identification tasks, but that the introduction of minima l context (a second syllable) disproportionately affects learners. When it comes to (tone) word recognition, the same learners who excel at tone identification display wide variability. While some individuals excel, learners as a group are often insensitive to tone cues—even when they kn ow the appropriate tones for the tested words. At the same time, learner s often lack explicit tone knowledge for frequent words, suggesting they are not able to efficiently encode lexical tone representations in long -term memory. Nevertheless, as noted, all the learners included in this research are rightly described as successful. Considering this, I will f inish by considering whether accurate L2 tone perception even matters at all.

For more details: ht tps://events.la.psu.edu/event/eric-pelzl-penn-state-what-is-and-isnt-har d-about-learning-lexical-tones-research-with-advanced-second-language-le arners-of-mandarin-chinese/

LOCATION:127 Moore Building END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR