Effects Of Vowel Qualities Of Mandarin On The Perception Of Tones By Chinese Learners In Spanish-speaking Areas

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether vowel quality affects the tone perception of Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking areas and how.In this paper,a vowel continuum from [a] to [i] is made,and on basis of the vowel continuum,two tone continuums from high and level tone to falling tone and rising tone to falling tone are made.In this study,Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking areas were asked to identify the stimuli of the continuum,and the perception of Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking area of the two continuums and the influence of vowel quality were investigated.15 Chinese and 9 non-Chinese subjects were recruited for this experiment,all of whom had Chinese proficiency at HSK level 4 or above.The results are as follows:First,the perception of Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking area of tone is influenced by vowel quality.In terms of the recognition rate,the recognition rate of typical T1,T2 and T4 of a is higher than that of i.Secondly,in terms of perceptual patterns,T1-T4 and T2-T4 of the tone continuum carried by a are closer to the perceptual patterns of native speakers,while the perceptual patterns carried by i are not category perception.Secondly,the perception of the T1-T4 tone continuum carried by the a-i vowel continuum by Chinese Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking area of Chinese Origin reflects the action law of the internal pitch of vowels.Chinese Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking area tend to identify the tone close to typical low vowel a as T1,and the tone close to typical high vowel i as T4.Thirdly,the perception of Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking are of the T2-T4 tone continuum carried by the a-i vowel continuum reflects the action law of the internal pitch of vowels.Chinese learners in Spanish-speaking are tend to identify the tone close to typical low vowel a as T2,and the tone close to typical high vowel i as T4.