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Second language (L2) learners differ considerably in their ability to learn new phonetic contrasts in the L2. For example, Gottfried and Suiter (1997) observed that many native speakers of American English were highly accurate in their identification of Mandarin Chinese tones, while others, with similar years of experience in learning Mandarin, were very poor. The current study compared listeners’ identification of Mandarin tones with their ability to perceive the pitch direction of sine-wave glides. Sine waves of 400 ms with starting frequencies of 250 and 300 Hz were created with 0- to 50-Hz sweeps up or down from the initial frequencies. Listeners who had no experience with Mandarin indicated whether the pitch went up, down, or remained the same. After testing on the sine waves, listeners identified the tone (high-level, mid-rising, low-dipping, and high-falling) of intact and silent-center (with only the initial and final portions) Mandarin /l/-vowel syllables. Analysis revealed that listeners with musical training performed significantly better on intact Mandarin syllables than nonmusic majors, but no difference was observed for silent-centers. Voice majors seemed to have a particular advantage. Significant correlations were also found between tests of glide perception and tone identification (ranging from 0.530 to 0.642).
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