The Acquisition of Chinese as a Second Language Pronunciation

Chunsheng Yang is an Associate Professor of Chinese and Applied Linguistics at the University of Connecticut. His main focus areas are the acquisition of second language prosody (tones, intonation, stress, and rhythm) and second language pronunciation teaching and research. He has published numerous articles and one monograph (The Acquisition of Second Language Mandarin Prosody: From Experimental Studies to Pedagogical Practice by John Benjamins Publishing Company) in these areas. He is also interested in Chinese linguistics, Chinese pedagogy, computer-assisted language learning, and applied linguistics in general.

1. Introduction of Second Language Chinese pronunciation.- 2. Segment acquisition.- 3. L2 tone/segment acquisition.- 4. Tone processing in L1 and L2.- 5. Categorical perception of Mandarin tones by native and second language (L2) speakers.- 6. Effects of segments, intonation and rhythm on the perception of L2 accentedness and comprehensibility.- 7. Effects of F0 and context on L2 Chinese intelligibility.- 8. The role of vocabulary knowledge in second language speaking fluency.- 9. Pronunciation issues among Chinese heritage language learners.- 10. L2 Chinese pronunciation teaching: Segments.- 11. L2 Chinese pronunciation teaching: Suprasegmentals or prosody.- 12. Assessment of L2 Chinese pronunciation.- 13. Higher variability phonetic training: Tones, segments with higher error gravity/functional load, to be decided (tentative).- 14. Computer assisted language teaching of CSL pronunciation, to be decided (tentative).- 15. Orthography and CSL pronunciation, to be decided (tentative).