title: Effects of linguistic experience on the perception of high-variability non-native tones.
abstract: Whether tone language experience facilitates non-native tone perception is an area of research that previously yielded conflicting results, potentially because of the lack of systematical control of speaker normalization effects across studies. Under a high-variability testing condition with controlled speaker normalization cues, Cantonese (native controls), Mandarin (Cantonese-naive tone listeners), and English (non-tone listeners) listeners identified three Cantonese level tones. The results indicate a facilitatory effect of tone experience on non-native tone perception when normalization for inter-speaker variation is required.
authors.affiliation: Department of English, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec. 3, Zhongxiao East Road, Taipei, Taiwan shawnchang@ntut.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yung-Hsiang Shawn
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong ctyaoyao@polyu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA becky.huang@utsa.edu.
authors.forename: Becky H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Huang