Listening Acquisition:

1. Listening Acquisition: Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice by Elsa Chang

2. Do you speak any tonal languages?

3. Vietnamese (Northern)

4. Chinese Dialects

5. Standard Chinese: Mandarin

6. O O O

7. Standard Chinese: Mandarin • Mandarin is a tonal language. • A syllable with different tones represents different words with different meanings. • Standard Chinese has four pitched tones and one neutral tone.

8. Learning to read Mandarin 你好。 • Nǐhǎo. • Xìexie. • Wǒ zài kàn shū. • Wǒ zài kǎn shù. 谢谢。 I am reading a book. 看书 I am cutting trees. 砍树

9. Tone Diagram 1-5: one’s natural comfortable voice range high mid-high mid mid-low low (2-1-4) mǎ (5-1) mà (3-5) má (5-5) mā

10. Mā

11. má

12. mǎ

13. mà

14. Māmā mà mǎ. Mǎ mà māmā.

15. Your Turn!

16. The 1st Tone (“Singing” tone) Mā

17. The 2nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone) So? má

18. The 3rd Tone (“Growling” Tone) mǎ

19. The 4th Tone (“Dropping” Tone) No! mà

20. The Revised Tone Chart 1st: singing tone (mā) 2nd: climbing tone (só) 4th: dropping tone (nò) 3rd: growling tone (mǎ) 5th: short and light (ma)

21. Can you hear the difference? má mǎ mà mā

22. Which Tone did you hear? ba – ba ma – ma de – de le – le ji – ji xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi Singing Climbing Growling Dropping

23. Can You Say It? Singing Climbing Growling Dropping mā má mǎ mà

24. To Kiss or To Ask? wěn wèn

25. To Buy or To Sell? mǎi mài

26. Glasses or Eyes? Yǎng Jīng Yǎng Jìng

27. Cutting Trees or Reading? Kǎn shù Kàn shū

28. shīshì – accident shíshì – current events • sījī – chauffeur sìjì – four seasons • zìxí – self study zǐxì – careful • xǐshì – happy event xīshì – to dilute • shìjì – century shíjì – practical

29. Who is he? YáoMíng

30. Let’s Try • Mā Má Mǎ Mà • Mā Mǎ Má Mà • Má Mǎ Mà Mā • Mǎ Má Mā Mǎ

31. Change of Tones (1) • Two 3rd tones Nǐhǎo mā? →Ní hǎo ma? Wǒ hěn hǎo. → Wǒhén hǎo. Wó hén hǎo. (3-2-3) (2-2-3)

32. Change of Tones (2) • The number “1” (the character “一”): 1, 11, 21 → 一双 → yìshuāng (4-1) 一瓶 → yìpíng (4-2) 一种 → yìzhǒng (4-3) 一罐 → yíguàn (2-4) 一个 → yíge(2-0) 1st tone

33. Change of Tones (3) • The character “不” 不吃: bùchī 不行: bùxíng 不冷: bùlěng 不热: bùrè → búrè (4-1) (4-2) (4-3) (2-4) (4-4)

34. Tones and Intonation • Chinese tones ＝English intonation? OK? OK. Nǐ yào chá háishi kāfēi? Nǐ yào chá háishi kāféi?

35. Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes • 她很好看。她很好看。 (required in grammar) 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 - 很 said with greater force. - all syllables remain in their original tone.

36. In-Class Exercise • Counting numbers with hand gesture: 1 syllable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 syllables: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16… 3 syllables: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26…..

37. In-Class Listening Exercise • Dictation on words of two syllables: baoguo, hupi, chongqing, fanxing etc. bāoguǒ →bāoguò → bāogǒu

38. In-Class Listening Exercise • 1 class session on listening exercise → T: Chinese only; S: translate into E. • 我们 系有很多外国学生。 • 那个高个子的男孩是我男朋友。 → Use words of the same category to give clues. → Use resources available in the classroom

39. Homework • Practice on tone recognition: http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html

40. Homework: Sentence Dictation - listen to sentences read in natural speed • write down answers in Chinese, not English. • to reinforce sound recognition and to associate sounds to the characters and meaning they represent.

41. Tones! Tones! Tones! • Tones of a Chinese language is like the foundation of a house. • You cannot be understood no matter how fluent you are in Chinese without tones. • It is important to speak with correct tones right at the beginning of Chinese language study.

42. The End