Training of Natural Prosody in Second Language (L2) Chinese

Dr. Yang will share insights from his recent research, offering an engaging and accessible talk for students and faculty across disciplines. All undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty are cordially invited.

 

This study investigates the effectiveness of training L2 Chinese prosody using a system of prosodic transcription called CHIPROT (Třísková, 2022), which annotates three major prosodic features of natural Chinese speech: stress, chunking, and intonation. The whole study lasted approximately five weeks. It comprised a pre-test, four tutorials on Chinese prosody and CHIPROT, eight training sessions, and a post-test. Seventeen participants were recruited for the study. They were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n=10) and the control group (n=7). To evaluate the training results, three native Chinese speakers were recruited. They rated the accentedness and comprehensibility of the pre- and post-test recordings of both groups, using a 9-point Likert scale. No statistically significant differences were found in accentedness and comprehensibility ratings between the pre- and post-tests and across groups. Despite this global result, eight out of the ten participants in the experimental group showed a slight decrease in accentedness, while only three out of the seven participants in the control group improved. It was suggested that the following factors may have led to the lack of significant improvement in the experimental group compared to the control group: limited instruction on prosodic features, short duration of training, the small sample size, the use of a simple reading task for the pre- and post-tests, and the global rating criteria for evaluations of comprehensibility and accentedness. While a significant improvement in L2 prosody was not observed in our study, we believe that systematic metalinguistic instruction on prosody, in combination with extensive practical training using CHIPROT, shows promise for enhancing L2 Chinese prosody teaching. The responses from the end-of-study survey indicated that the participants in the experimental group enjoyed the prosody training and appreciated the value of CHIPROT.

 

We will also host an open dinner on April 2 after the lecture, available to all event attendees who sign up through the registration survey at https://osu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4UgwSqCV6KFFirY