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Listening Acquisition: Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice by Elsa Chang
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Do you speak any tonal languages?
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Vietnamese (Northern)
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Chinese Dialects
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Standard Chinese: Mandarin
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O O O
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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.
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Learning to read Mandarin Nǐhǎo. Xìexie. Wǒ zài kàn sh ū. Wǒ zài k ǎ n shù. 你好。 谢谢。 I am reading a book. 看书 I am cutting trees. 砍树
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Tone Diagram 1-5: one’s natural comfortable voice range high mid-high mid mid-low low (5-5) mā (3-5) má (2-1-4) mǎ (5-1) mà
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MāMā
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mámá
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mǎmǎ
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màmà
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Māmā m à mǎ. Mǎ m à māmā.
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Your Turn!
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The 1 st Tone (“Singing” tone) MāMā
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The 2 nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone) mámá So?
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The 3 rd Tone (“Growling” Tone) mǎmǎ
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The 4 th Tone (“Dropping” Tone) màmà No!
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The Revised Tone Chart 1 st : singing tone (m ā ) 2 nd : climbing tone (só) 3 rd : growling tone (m ǎ ) 4 th : dropping tone (nò) 5 th : short and light (ma)
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Can you hear the difference? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà
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Which Tone did you hear? ba – ba ma – ma de – de le – le ji – ji xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi DroppingClimbingSingingGrowling
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Can You Say It? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà SingingClimbingDroppingGrowling
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To Kiss or To Ask? wěnwěn wènwèn
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To Buy or To Sell? m ǎ i mài
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Glasses or Eyes? Y ǎ ng Jìng Y ǎ ng J ī ng
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Cutting Trees or Reading? K ǎ n shù Kàn sh ū
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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
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Who is he? YáoMíng
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Let’s Try Mā Má Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mà Má Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mā Mǎ
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Change of Tones (1) Two 3 rd tones Nǐhǎo mā? → Ní hǎo ma? Wǒ hěn hǎo. → Wǒ hén hǎo. Wó hén hǎo. (3-2-3) (2-2-3)
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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) 1 st tone
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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) (4-4) (2-4)
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Tones and Intonation Chinese tones = English intonation? OK? OK. Nǐ yào chá háishi kāfēi? Nǐ yào chá háishi kāféi?
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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.
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Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes I am tired. Wǒ lèi le 。 Wǒ lèi le 。
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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…..
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In-Class Listening Exercise Dictation on words of two syllables: baoguo, hupi, chongqing, fanxing etc. bāoguǒ →bāoguò→ bāogǒu
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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
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Homework Practice on tone recognition: http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedr ill.html http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedr ill.html
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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.
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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.
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The End
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