Participants recruiting -- Free Mandarin tutorial provided!

[Yuniverse]

I am a linguistic student currently looking for participants (who have to be 1) English-native speakers; 2) between 18-32 years old) for my dissertation regarding Mandarin tones. The experiment lasts around 15-20 minutes, including two imitation tasks about some Chinese pseudo words written in Pinyin. It will be conducted online. You will be provided with a free Mandarin tutorial for your participation. Any other questions concerning your studies are also welcome in your future Mandarin learning process! 

 

If you are interested and require for more information, please send an email to yanyu.li@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

 

Thank you!

 

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Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well ? This is the update about the experiment.

 
The experiement was successful and the results yielded were accordant with my hypotheses, which was a rather theoretical one. Basically, one of the prevalent views in linguistics is that human are born with a set of "grammar". People from different language backgrounds speak different languages because the set of universal rules are reordered by the language environments where people live. Note that the rules are reodered not replaced. Some rules that are ranked lower in one language are ranked higher in another. For instance, one rule (R) says: syllables prefer to end in vowels. Languages where R ranks higher will manifest the principle, such as Japanese and Mandarin, where syllables cannot end in consonants other than nasals like /n/, e.g., ta, man, etc. However, in languages where R ranks lower, R is covered/masked. For instance, in English, syllables can end in most of the consonants, e.g., bed, cat, etc. However, the rules that are ranked lower can be possibly manifested when listeners acquire another language. We call this "the emergence". 

 

This experiment on Mandarin tone actually provides support for "the emergence". The universal grammar rules that: adjacent linguistic units (e.g., tones) prefer to be dissimilar (D). D is ranked lower in Mandarin, but because English does not have tones so Enligsh speakers abide by this rule whenever in encounter. It is found that English-speaking Mandarin learners with a lower proficiency level show more of this principle when producing Mandarin tones than those with a higher proficiency level. Especially, evidence can hardly be seen in advanced learners, whose tone production is similar to that of Mandarin native speakers. 

 

I know... It's long. But now that you've made it here, here is a short take-away message for its practicial implication: if you struggle to say tones correctly, try to practice reading two characters with identical tones, e.g., ma.ma (both with tone 2) -- you are challenging the inborn universal grammar!

 

Edited February 13, 2021 at 03:14 AM by Yuniverse

[somethingfunny]

Can we receive the cash equivalent of the Mandarin tutorial?

[Yuniverse]

Sorry, cash is not allowed as rewards for this program.

[mungouk]

Hi @Yuniverse Yanyu, is the Mandarin-speaking level of the volunteers important?

 

 

[Yuniverse]

Hi, thanks for replying. I'm studying learners at all levels, so at current stage each level is welcome!

[Yuniverse]

PS: Please confirm that 1) you are a native English speaker; 2) you age between 18-32; 3) currently all levels are welcome (but please inform me in your email of your level ). 

[mungouk]

36 minutes ago, Yuniverse said:

you age between 18-32

 

Well that rules me out, then. 

What's the rationale behind excluding older people, if I might ask?

 

[Yuniverse]

Just now, mungouk said:

Well that rules me out

 

Aww sorry for that. This age range is based on some theories assuming that people at different age demonstrate different learnabilities. Experiment participants need to be controlled within similar traits somehow. But thank you for your reply!  

[mungouk]

No problem.  Good luck with your study.

Please come back and share the results of your experiment and the conclusions of your dissertation with us when you have time.

[Yuniverse]

Just now, mungouk said:

Good luck

 

I will! Thank you

[suMMit]

She raised the age limit and I ended up participating in this experiment. Took around ten minutes, mainly reading tone pairs of made up words.

 

Please let us know what you discovered!

[Yuniverse]

 

I will! Thank you for your participation.  

[BaneGlory]

三十六歲已經老不了了 ?

[somethingfunny]

I've also done this.  Really does take less than ten minutes.

[道艺]

Just finished - total time 13 mintues exactly. Help out if you can!