An Online Perceptual Test of Mandarin Chinese Tones by L2 Learners of Tonal vs. Nontonal Languages

The principal aim of the online Mandarin Chinese perceptual test is to understand how learners of Mandarin Chinese identify the language’s four tones and its correlated factors. There are many factors involved in successfully learning a second language. Therefore, aside from a learner’s L1 language and prior experience, his/her attitude and motivation also contribute to L2 learning. That may be why previous research did not come to a conclusion about how L2 learners acquire Mandarin tones. In this study, we investigated tonal vs. nontonal, and other factors that may contribute to the perceptual test results. An online perceptual test of Mandarin tones is designed for the collection of L2 learners' perceptual data. We collected data from a total 206 participants in this study. 75 participants identified themselves as tonal speakers, 91 as nontonal speakers, while 40 chose other. The participants were university students in the US and Vietnam, learning Mandarin Chinese at the time they took the experiment. The test contains a questionnaire and 20 test items. The results show that tonal speakers achieved significantly higher accuracy rates in identifying Mandarin tones and their response time was significantly shorter than nontonal speakers. Most identification errors for tonal speakers occurred for Tone 1, while Tone 2 had the most errors for nontonal speakers. Correlation analysis shows that majoring in Chinese is positively correlated with their test score. Regarding attitude and motivation factors, the more important one valued tones, the better he/she performed. The more the student wanted to master Chinese tones, the better he/she performed.