Resumen de Challenges in multi-language pronunciation teaching: A cross-linguistic study of Chinese students’ perception of voiced and voiceless stops

Liu Jiaqi, Zeng Ting, Xiuchuan Lu

• English

  This article reports on a cross-linguistic study of 58 Chinese students’ perception of voiced and voiceless stops in their third language (L3). The participants were Japanese, Russian, or Spanish major students in a Chinese university, who were beginner learners of these languages but who had all learned English as their second language (L2) for over 10 years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the L3 learners’ perceptual differences in the stop categories, and analyze the effects of the learners’ multi-language background on their perception of L3 stops. Results from the perception experiment showed that: 1) the value and range of voice onset time (VOT) play an essential role in Chinese students’ perception of voiceless stops; and 2) the pre-voicing during closure is the key to Chinese students’ perception of voiced stops. We attribute their difficulty in perceiving L3 voiceless stops to the similarity in the phonemic range of voiceless stops between the learners’ L3 and their L1 and L2, as this leads to confusion in perception. On the other hand, the dissimilarity between L3 voiced stops and those of L1 and L2 is conducive to the students’ perception of L3 voiced stops. Findings from this study provide empirical evidence for the effect of similarity and dissimilarity in speech sounds as proposed in earlier phonology acquisition theories, and they can also inform the pedagogy of multi-language education.

• 中文

  本研究针对58名中国学生开展了第三语言（日语、俄语、西班牙语）清浊塞音感知习得的跨语言研究。被试是三语初级学习者，且拥有约10年的二语英语学习经历。本研究的目的是，调查中国学生的三语塞音种类感知差异，探明学习者的多语背景对三语塞音感知的影响。研究发现：(1) VOT值的大小和区间范围是中国学生感知清塞音的关键；(2) 持阻阶段的带音性是中国学生感知浊塞音的关键。通过进一步讨论，我们发现三语清塞音感知之所以困难，是由于三语与母语、二语清塞音音位区间存在声学相似性，导致感知混淆。另一方面，三语浊塞音与母语、二语间存在的声学差异性则有利于三语浊塞音的感知。本研究成果不仅为跨语言视域下的第三语言语音习得理论发展提供了实证，而且为多语语音教学改革提供了依据。