Acoustic analysis of Chinese tone production by Thai-speaking learners of L2 Chinese

This article reports on an empirical study of Chinese tone production in various contexts by Thai-speaking learners of L2 Chinese. Comparisons are made between Thai students and Chinese native speakers. The acoustic data are analyzed in terms of pitch register, pitch contour and duration, which show that the main problems of Thai students are: (1) T1 is lower in sentence-mid and sentence-initial positions; (2) T2 is less rising or even exhibits a falling-rising contour at a lower register; (3) T3 cannot approximate a full falling-rising contour in isolated characters and at sentence-final position; (4) T4 is too long and the falling slope is too strong. Our results suggest that Thai students should make efforts in both pitch and rhythm control and pay attention to context variations. It is also suggested that similar research methods can be applied to L2 Chinese learners with different first languages (L1s).