The Effects of Pitch Singing Training on Recognizing and Enunciating Chinese Tones

It is a challenge for non-tonal language speakers to enunciate the four Chinese tones accurately. In this study, I examined whether musical training benefits tonal language learning, evaluated whether the pitch singing training influence recognizing and enunciating the four Chinese tones, and compared the effects of a pitch singing training method with the traditional audio-lingual method. Sixty American college students who had not taken a Chinese course and who did not speak and write Chinese, were recruited in this study. The participants were divided evenly and randomly into two groups: the pitch singing training group and the traditional audio-lingual training group. They participated in a pretest/training/posttest program over the course of eight training sessions. Results revealed the pitch singing training method had a greater effect on both recognizing and enunciating the four Chinese tones than did the traditional audio-lingual method. The pitch singing training method can be used as an alternative and effective way to improve non-tonal language speakers' recognition and enunciation of the four Chinese tones, because it provides a sensory experience to the learners, builds associations to the concept of abstract Chinese tones, and elaborates on learners' memory of the Chinese tones to store it for long-term retention. Consequently, Chinese language learners can make conversations more efficient and be more motivated in learning Chinese.

關鍵字

enunciation mandarin tones ； learning tones with music ； pitch singing exercise ； recognition mandarin tone

並列摘要

對於母語是非音調語言的學習者來說，準確辨別和念讀漢語的四聲調是一個大挑戰。在這項研究中，調查員測試了唱音高訓練是否有益於帶音調語言的學習，評估了唱音高訓練是否對辨別和念讀拼音中的四種聲調有作用，並將唱音高訓練方法與傳統的聽－模仿跟讀模式（無音樂）的效果進行了比較。本研究招募了60名從沒有上過中文課程，也不會說和寫漢語的美國大學生。參與者被平均隨機分為兩組：唱音高訓練組和傳統聽－模仿跟讀訓練組。每一組的實驗模式為：一次前測／八次訓練活動／一次後測。結果表明，與傳統的聽－模仿跟讀訓練方法相比，唱音高訓練方法可以提高母語非音調語的學習者對漢語四聲的辨別和念讀的精準度。唱音高訓練法可以為母語非音調語的學習者提供一種感官體驗，建立對抽象漢語聲調概念的聯想，並加深學習者對漢語四聲調的記憶，以便存入長期記憶模式。因此，在漢語四聲調教學中可融入唱音高訓練法，從多維度和感性體驗上幫助學習者更快、更精準地掌握四聲調，從而增強學習動力和成功率。

並列關鍵字

四聲調音樂學習法；念讀拼音四聲調；唱音高訓練；聽辨拼音四聲調

參考文獻

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Bidelman, Gavin M., Stefanie Hutka, and Sylvain Moreno. 2013. Tone language speakers and musicians share enhanced perceptual and cognitive abilities for musical pitch: Evidence for bidirectionality between the domains of language and music. PLOS ONE 8.4: e60676. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060676

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Cooper, Angela, and Yue Wang. 2012. The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131: 4756-4769. doi:10.1121/1.4714355

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The Effects of Pitch Singing Training on Recognizing and Enunciating Chinese Tones

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