Bilingual students’ Mandarin tone productions (Lin et al., 2025)

Purpose: This study investigates how Mandarin–English bilingual students in Canada produce Mandarin tones and how this is influenced by factors such as tone complexity, cross-linguistic influences, and speech input.Method: Participants were 82 students enrolled in a Chinese bilingual program in Western Canada. Students were recruited from Grades 1, 3, and 5 and divided into two groups based on their home language backgrounds: The heritage language group had early and strong input in Mandarin, and the second language (L2) group received mostly English input at home. Single-word tone productions were audio-recorded and transcribed by Mandarin-native listeners for match (accuracy) and pattern analyses. Acoustic measurements were extracted to provide phonetic details.Results: First, Tone3 (dipping tone) was challenging across groups due to its complexity. Second, L2 students’ productions were more influenced by English as a nontonal language and showed signs of categorical confusion. Third, increased tone match rates were related to both home input and school input, but bilingual students did not reach more than 90% of match rates in Grade 5. Instead, L2 students produced phonetic features less accurately in higher grades. This was attributed to reduced pronunciation instruction and limited home input.Conclusions: Bilingual students’ speech development in a minority language indicates unique influences of home and school input but also the universal influences of tone complexity. This study provides evidence for bilingual speech theories in the suprasegmental domain and has implications for the pedagogy of a minority language in the context of bilingual education.Supplemental Material S1. Mean duration of tone productions in each subgroup to convert equal normalized durations to differentiated normalized durations.Supplemental Material S2. Details of the selected optimal logistic mixed model for tone match.Supplemental Material S3. Details of the selected optimal GAMM for F0 contours.Supplemental Material S4. Details of the selected optimal linear mixed model for tone duration.Lin, Y., Pollock, K. E., & Li, F. (2025). Speech production of Mandarin lexical tones among Canadian elementary students enrolled in Mandarin–English bilingual schools. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(2), 435–455. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00150

研究目的：本研究旨在探究加拿大中英双语学生的普通话词汇声调（Mandarin lexical tone）产出模式，以及声调复杂度、跨语言影响、言语输入等因素对其产生的具体作用。

研究方法：招募加拿大西部中文双语项目的82名学生作为研究对象，覆盖一年级、三年级与五年级，并依据家庭语言背景将其分为两组：传承语组（heritage language group）为早年接触且掌握较强普通话输入的学生；第二语言（L2）组学生在家中主要以英语作为日常输入语言。对学生的单字声调产出进行录音转录，由母语为普通话的听辨者完成匹配度（准确率）与模式分析；同时提取声学测量参数，以获取详细的语音学特征。

研究结果：第一，第三声调（曲折调，Tone3）因自身复杂度较高，在两组学生中均为声调产出难点。第二，第二语言组学生的声调产出更易受非声调语言英语的影响，表现出范畴性混淆（categorical confusion）的迹象。第三，声调匹配率的提升与家庭及学校输入均存在相关性，但五年级双语学生的声调匹配率未超过90%；此外，高年级阶段的第二语言组学生在语音特征产出上的准确性更低，该现象可归因于发音教学课时减少与家庭输入的局限性。

研究结论：少数族裔语言的双语学生言语发展，既体现了家庭与学校输入的独特影响，也印证了声调复杂度的普遍性作用。本研究为超音段领域（suprasegmental domain）的双语言语理论提供了实证依据，同时对双语教育背景下的少数族裔语言教学具有实践借鉴意义。

补充材料S1：各亚组声调产出的平均时长数据，用于将均等归一化时长转换为差异化归一化时长。
补充材料S2：用于声调匹配分析的最优逻辑混合模型（logistic mixed model）细节。
补充材料S3：用于基频（F0）轮廓分析的最优广义加性混合模型（Generalized Additive Mixed Models, GAMM）细节。
补充材料S4：用于声调时长分析的最优线性混合模型（linear mixed model）细节。

林(Y.)、波洛克(K. E.)、李(F.)（2025）。《加拿大普通话-英语双语小学学生的普通话词汇声调言语产出》，《言语、语言与听力研究期刊》，68(2)，435–455。https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00150