Presentation

Acoustic Cues for English Lexical Stress Perception by Mandarin Native Speakers: A Critical Review

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Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that Mandarin and English speakers use different phonetic cues in speech perception. In particular, there are many differences between English and Mandarin in terms of lexical stress patterns. Different tones are used to change lexical meanings in Mandarin, whereas such phenomena do not exist in English, which indicates potential inter-language interferences in the perception of English lexical stress by Mandarin English-as-an-Additional-Language (EAL) learners. The current paper discusses Mandarin EAL learners’ perception of English lexical stress by critically reviewing previous studies. In general, findings have suggested that Mandarin EAL learners use various phonetic cues in English lexical stress perception, though which phonetic cues are primarily used is still under debate. The paper further identifies several variables that may account for the contrastive findings in previous studies and discusses their potential implications for EAL pedagogy development.

How to Cite:

Chen, S., (2012) “Acoustic Cues for English Lexical Stress Perception by Mandarin Native Speakers: A Critical Review”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 4(1).