Listening Acquisition Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice

Listening Acquisition: Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice by Elsa Chang

Do you speak any tonal languages?

Vietnamese (Northern)

Chinese Dialects

Standard Chinese: Mandarin

O O O

Standard Chinese: Mandarin n. A is a tonal language. syllable with different tones represents different words with different meanings. n Standard Chinese has four pitched tones and one neutral tone.

Learning to read Mandarin n Nǐhǎo. 你好。 n Xìexie. 谢谢。 n Wǒ zài kàn shū. I am reading a book. 看书 n Wǒ zài kǎn shù. I am cutting trees. 砍树

Tone Diagram 1 -5: one’s natural comfortable voice range high mid-high mid-low (5 -5) (3 -5) (2 -1 -4) (5 -1) mā má mǎ mà

Mā

má

mǎ

mà

Māmā mà mǎ. Mǎ mà māmā.

Your Turn!

The 1 st Tone (“Singing” tone) Mā

The 2 nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone) So? má

The 3 rd Tone (“Growling” Tone) mǎ

The 4 th Tone (“Dropping” Tone) No! mà

The Revised Tone Chart 1 st: singing tone (mā) 2 nd: climbing tone (só) 4 th: dropping tone (nò) 3 rd: growling tone (mǎ) 5 th: short and light (ma)

Can you hear the difference? mā má mǎ mà

Which Tone did you hear? Singing ba – ba ji – ji Climbing Growling Dropping ma – ma de – de le – le xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi

Can You Say It? Singing Climbing Growling Dropping mā má mǎ mà

To Kiss or To Ask? wěn wèn

To Buy or To Sell? m ǎi mài

Glasses or Eyes? Yǎng Jìng Yǎng Jīng

Cutting Trees or Reading? Kǎn shù Kàn shū

n shīshì – accident shíshì – current events n sījī – chauffeur sìjì – four seasons n zìxí – self study zǐxì – careful n xǐshì – happy event xīshì – to dilute n shìjì – century shíjì – practical

Who is he? Yáo. Míng

Let’s Try n Mā n Má n Mǎ Má Mà Mā Mà Mà Mā Mǎ

Change of Tones (1) n Two 3 rd tones Nǐhǎo mā? → Ní hǎo ma? Wǒ hěn hǎo. → Wǒ hén hǎo. (3 -2 -3) Wó hén hǎo. (2 -2 -3)

Change of Tones (2) n The number “ 1” (the character “一”): 1, 11, 21 → 1 st tone 一双 → yìshuāng (4 -1) 一瓶 → yìpíng (4 -2) 一种 → yìzhǒng (4 -3) 一罐 → yíguàn (2 -4) 一个 → yíge (2 -0)

Change of Tones (3) n The character “不” 不吃: bùchī (4 -1) 不行: bùxíng (4 -2) 不冷: bùlěng (4 -3) 不热: bùrè (4 -4)→ búrè (2 -4)

Tones and Intonation n Chinese tones ＝ English intonation? OK. Nǐ yào chá háishi kāfēi? Nǐ yào chá háishi kāféi?

Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes n 她很好看。 (required in grammar) 1 234 1 2 3 4 - 很 said with greater force. - all syllables remain in their original tone.

In-Class Exercise n Counting numbers with hand gesture: 1 syllable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 syllables: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16… 3 syllables: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26…. .

In-Class Listening Exercise n Dictation on words of two syllables: baoguo, hupi, chongqing, fanxing etc. bāoguǒ →bāoguò → bāogǒu

In-Class Listening Exercise n 1 class session on listening exercise → T: Chinese only; S: translate into E. n 我们 系有很多外国学生。 → Use words of the same category to give clues. n 那个高个子的男孩是我男朋友。 → Use resources available in the classroom

Homework n Practice on tone recognition: http: //www. pinyinpractice. com/tones. htm http: //www. shufawest. us/language/tonedri ll. html

Homework: Sentence Dictation - listen to sentences read in natural speed - write down answers in Chinese, not English. - to reinforce sound recognition and to associate sounds to the characters and meaning they represent.

Tones! - Tones of a Chinese language is like the foundation of a house. - You cannot be understood no matter how fluent you are in Chinese without tones. - It is important to speak with correct tones right at the beginning of Chinese language study.

The End