Perceptual Errors in Chinese Language Processing: A Case Study of Czech learners

There are now a vast number of cross-linguistic studies that investigate how perceptual performance with non-native speech categories is constrained by the listener's native language. However, considering the acquisition of the Chinese language phonological system, studies examining the transfer from less frequent languages are rather rare. The aim of this paper is to fill the gap regarding Czech native speakers. Through examining errors in dictation tests, it introduces some difficulties experienced by beginner level Chinese students and thus provides insight on the perception of Chinese language segmental and suprasegmental features by Czech learners. The findings imply that while errors in initials and finals show a high influence of the native language, errors in disyllabic tonal combinations seem to follow the basic language-independent patterns that have been observed in previous studies.