This study looks at the relationship between the perception and production of Mandarin tones by non-native speakers studying Mandarin. This issue is first examined in terms of the relationship between the perception and production of speech, in general, and then in terms of Mandarin tone perception and Mandarin tone production.The subjects (N=33) were students studying Mandarin Chinese at the University of Hawai'i and were both native and non-native English speakers who neither spoke or heard Mandarin regularly outside of the classroom. Subjects were administered a three part "Mandarin Tone Test'' focusing on a) tone production, b) tone perception, and c) subject perception of their own tone production.85% of the subjects perceived tones better than they produced the same tones. Further, subject perception errors appeared to be of two primary types: a) misidentification of a tone and b) identification of a tone according to incorrect tone features/boundaries. Overall, students showed global awareness of their tone production errors based upon subject tone "ratings". Finally, subject production, perception, and whole test mean scores increased corresponding to subject courselevel (100-, 200-, 400-).
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