1. Listening Acquisition: Chinese Tones from Perception to Practice by Elsa Chang

2. Do you speak any tonal languages?

3. Vietnamese (Northern)

4. Chinese Dialects

5. Standard Chinese: Mandarin

6. O O O

7. Mandarin is a tonal language. A syllable with different tones represents different words with different meanings. Standard Chinese has four pitched tones and one neutral tone.

8. Learning to read Mandarin Nǐhǎo. Xìexie. Wǒ zài kàn sh ū. Wǒ zài k ǎ n shù. 你好。 谢谢。 I am reading a book. 看书 I am cutting trees. 砍树

9. Tone Diagram 1-5: one’s natural comfortable voice range high mid-high mid mid-low low (5-5) mā (3-5) má (2-1-4) mǎ (5-1) mà

10. MāMā

11. mámá

12. mǎmǎ

13. màmà

14. Māmā m à mǎ. Mǎ m à māmā.

15. Your Turn!

16. The 1 st Tone (“Singing” tone) MāMā

17. The 2 nd Tone (“Climbing” Tone) mámá So?

18. The 3 rd Tone (“Growling” Tone) mǎmǎ

19. The 4 th Tone (“Dropping” Tone) màmà No!

20. The Revised Tone Chart 1 st : singing tone (m ā ) 2 nd : climbing tone (só) 3 rd : growling tone (m ǎ ) 4 th : dropping tone (nò) 5 th : short and light (ma)

21. Can you hear the difference? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà

22. Which Tone did you hear? ba – ba ma – ma de – de le – le ji – ji xi – xi zi – zi chi – chi DroppingClimbingSingingGrowling

23. Can You Say It? māmā mámámǎmǎmàmà SingingClimbingDroppingGrowling

24. To Kiss or To Ask? wěnwěn wènwèn

25. To Buy or To Sell? m ǎ i mài

26. Glasses or Eyes? Y ǎ ng Jìng Y ǎ ng J ī ng

27. Cutting Trees or Reading? K ǎ n shù Kàn sh ū

28. shīshì – accident shíshì – current events sījī – chauffeur sìjì – four seasons zìxí – self study zǐxì – careful xǐshì – happy event xīshì – to dilute shìjì – century shíjì – practical

29. Who is he? YáoMíng

30. Let’s Try Mā Má Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mà Má Mǎ Mà Mā Mǎ Má Mā Mǎ

31. Change of Tones (1) Two 3 rd tones Nǐhǎo mā? → Ní hǎo ma? Wǒ hěn hǎo. → Wǒ hén hǎo. Wó hén hǎo. (3-2-3) (2-2-3)

32. Change of Tones (2) The number “1” (the character “ 一 ”): 1, 11, 21 → 一双 → yìshuāng (4-1) 一瓶 → yìpíng (4-2) 一种 → yìzhǒng (4-3) 一罐 → yíguàn (2-4) 一个 → yíge (2-0) 1 st tone

33. Change of Tones (3) The character “ 不 ” 不吃 : bùchī 不行 : bùxíng 不冷 : bùlěng 不热 : bùrè → búrè (4-1) (4-2) (4-3) (4-4) (2-4)

34. Tones and Intonation Chinese tones ＝ English intonation? OK? OK. Nǐ yào chá háishi kāfēi? Nǐ yào chá háishi kāféi?

35. Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes 她很好看。 她 很 好看。 (required in grammar) 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 - 很 said with greater force. - all syllables remain in their original tone.

36. Expression: Stress & Sentence Tunes I am tired. Wǒ lèi le 。 Wǒ lèi le 。

37. In-Class Exercise Counting numbers with hand gesture: 1 syllable: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 syllables: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16… 3 syllables: 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26…..

38. In-Class Listening Exercise Dictation on words of two syllables: baoguo, hupi, chongqing, fanxing etc. bāoguǒ →bāoguò→ bāogǒu

39. In-Class Listening Exercise 1 class session on listening exercise → T: Chinese only; S: translate into E. 我们 系有很多外国学生。 那个高个子的男孩是我男朋友。 → Use words of the same category to give clues. → Use resources available in the classroom

40. Homework Practice on tone recognition: http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedr ill.html http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedr ill.html

41. Homework: Sentence Dictation - listen to sentences read in natural speed - write down answers in Chinese, not English. - to reinforce sound recognition and to associate sounds to the characters and meaning they represent.

42. Tones! Tones! Tones! - Tones of a Chinese language is like the foundation of a house. - You cannot be understood no matter how fluent you are in Chinese without tones. - It is important to speak with correct tones right at the beginning of Chinese language study.

43. The End