Communicative Focus on Form and Second Language Suprasegmental Learning: Teaching Cantonese Learners to Perceive Mandarin Tones

Autor/inn/en	Saito, Kazuya; Wu, Xianghua
Titel	Communicative Focus on Form and Second Language Suprasegmental Learning: Teaching Cantonese Learners to Perceive Mandarin Tones
Quelle	In: Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36 (2014) 4, S.647-680 (34 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0272-2631
DOI	10.1017/S0272263114000114
Schlagwörter	Mandarin Chinese; Sino Tibetan Languages; Native Language; Second Language Learning; Grammar; Tone Languages; Intonation; Pronunciation; Statistical Analysis; Error Correction; Linguistic Input; Feedback (Response); Control Groups; Identification; Task Analysis; Suprasegmentals; Teaching Methods; Second Language Instruction; Communicative Competence (Languages); Phonology; Phonetics; Instructional Effectiveness; Generalization + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Zweitsprachenerwerb; Grammatik; Tonsprache; Aussprache; Statistische Analyse; Korrektur; Sprachbildung; Identifikation; Identifizierung; Aufgabenanalyse; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Communicative competence; Languages; Kommunikative Kompetenz; Sprache; Fonologie; Phonetik; Fonetik; Unterrichtserfolg
Abstract	The current study examined how form-focused instruction (FFI) with and without corrective feedback (CF) as output enhancement facilitated second language (L2) perception of Mandarin tones at both the phonetic and phonological levels by 41 Cantonese learners of Mandarin. Two experimental groups, FFI only and FFI-CF, received a 90-min FFI treatment designed to encourage them to notice and practice the categorical distinctions of Mandarin tones through a range of communicative input and output activities. During these activities, the instructors provided CF only to students in the FFI-CF group by recasting and pushing them to repair their mispronunciations of the target features (i.e., output enhancement). The control group received comparable meaning-oriented instruction without any FFI. The effectiveness of FFI was assessed via a forced-choice identification task with both trained and untrained items for a variety of tonal contrasts in Mandarin (high-level Tone 1 vs. mid-rising Tone 2 vs. high-falling Tone 4). According to statistical comparisons, the FFI-only group attained significant improvement in all lexical and tonal contexts, and such effectiveness was evident particularly in the acquisition of Tone 1 and Tone 4--supposedly the most difficult instances due to their identical phonological status in the learners' first language, Cantonese. The FFI-CF group, however, demonstrated marginally significant gains only under the trained lexical conditions. The results suggest that FFI promotes learners' attentional shift from vocabulary to sound learning (generalizable gains in trained and untrained items) and facilitates their access to new phonetic and phonological categories. Yet the relative advantage of adding CF to FFI as output enhancement remains unclear, especially with respect to the less experienced L2 learners in the current study. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10