Characterizing rhythm in the ESL production by Mandarin Speakers on both duration- and pitch-based measures

An experiment is conducted to investigate rhythm in the ESL production by native Mandarin speakers. Rhythm is characterized not only by the traditional acoustic rhythmic measures of duration, but pitch-based analysis is also used, which include minimum and maximum F0s, pitch range, number of pitch rises and pitch slope. The results show that the ESL production has not met the native-speaking target on any of the nine acoustic measures, although it is closer to some than others. More specifically, the ESL production on durational measures suggests a consistent trend of a “interlanguage” whose durational values all fall between those of the L1 and L2. The pitch analysis yields varied results, some of which go outside the range between the L2 and L1 values.