Computer-aided feedback on the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese tones: using Praat to promote multimedia foreign language learning

Abstract

This article discusses whether digital visual and audio feedback in learners’ own voices improves their perception and production of lexical tones in Chinese as a foreign language. Forty-four beginners participated in a four-week training focused on the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese tones at the word level. Half received digital feedback generated by Praat, a phonetic research software, to visualize the contours of their tones while hearing corrected tones in their voices. The other half participants received visual and audio feedback given by the researcher. While both groups enhanced their tone perception and production skills during the training, the Praat-aided group made significantly larger progress than the control group. Post-training survey revealed participants’ preference for the imitation of corrected tones in their voices and the direct visual comparison between their tone contours and those of corrected tones. The findings corroborate the importance of computer-assisted multimedia learning in foreign language pedagogy, which also has implications for employing research-oriented technologies and automated tonal feedback in the instruction of Chinese as a foreign language.

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