Effects of tone training on Cantonese tone-word learning.
The present study examined the effect of improving lexical tone identification abilities on Cantonese tone-word learning. Native English non-musicians received training on Cantonese tones before learning the meanings of words distinguished by these tones. Their results were compared to English non-musicians and musicians who received no tone training. The tone-trainees obtained a similar level of word identification proficiency as musicians by the end of training and were significantly better than non-tone trained non-musicians. These results lend support for phonetic-phonological-lexical continuity in learning because enhancing listeners' perception of lower-level tonal information significantly contributed to success in a higher-level linguistic task.
Department of Linguistics, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada. akcooper@u.northwestern.edu
Angela
A
Cooper
Yue
Y
Wang
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001299:Audiometry; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010700:Phonetics; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult