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Perception and production of Mandarin lexical tones in Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese

중국어를 학습하는 한국어 모국어 화자의 중국어 성조 지각과 산출

  • Ko, Sungsil (Department of Social Psychology, Sookmyung Women's University) ;
  • Choi, Jiyoun (Department of Social Psychology, Sookmyung Women's University)
  • 고성실 (숙명여자대학교 사회심리학과) ;
  • 최지연 (숙명여자대학교 사회심리학과)
  • Received : 2019.01.29
  • Accepted : 2020.03.04
  • Published : 2020.03.31

Abstract

Non-tonal language speakers may have difficulty learning second language lexical tones. In the present study, we explored this issue with Korean-speaking learners of Mandarin Chinese (i.e., non-tonal first language speakers) by examining their perception and production of Mandarin lexical tones. In the perception experiment, the Korean learners were asked to listen to the tone of each stimulus and assign it to one of four Mandarin lexical tones using the response keys; in the production experiment, the learners provided speech production data for the lexical tones and then their productions were identified by native listeners of Mandarin Chinese. Our results showed that the Korean learners of Mandarin Chinese had difficulty in perceptually distinguishing Tone 2 and Tone 3, with the most frequent production error being the mispronunciation of Tone 3 as Tone 2. We also investigated whether unfamiliar non-native phonemes (i.e., Chinese phonemes) that do not exist in the native language phonemic inventory (i.e., Korean) may hinder the processing of the non-native lexical tones. We found no evidence for such effects, neither for the perception nor for the production of the tones.

비성조 모국어 화자가 성조 언어를 학습할 때 모국어에 없는 성조 체계 학습에 어려움을 보인다. 본 연구는 비성조 언어인 한국어 모국어 성인 화자가 중국어를 학습할 때 중국어 성조의 지각과 산출에서 어떤 어려움을 보이는지 규명하고자 하였다. 추가적으로 중국어 분절음이 한국어와 유사하지 않을 경우 초분절음인 성조 지각 및 산출에 어려움을 가중시키는지 알아보기 위해 중국어 자음의 한국어 자음과의 유사성을 조작하여 실험을 진행하였다. 실험 결과, 지각과 산출 간 정확도 및 반응시간이 각 성조 별로 차이를 보였다. 즉, 1성과 2성에서는 지각 과제에서 산출 과제에 비해 어려움을 보인 반면 3성에서는 산출 과제에서 지각 과제보다 어려움을 보였다. 오류 패턴 분석 결과, 지각 과제에서 2성과 3성을 서로 혼동을 하는 반면 산출 과제에서는 2성을 3성으로 산출하는 오류는 줄어들고 3성을 2성으로 산출하는 오류가 증가한 것을 보였다. 마지막으로, 한국어 유사성의 조작은 성조의 지각 및 산출에 영향을 주지 않았다.

Keywords

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