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Tone training for Mandarin two-syllable words based on pitch projection synthesized speech |
| XIE Yanlu1, ZHANG Bei2, ZHANG Jinsong1,2 |
1. College of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China;
2. Center for Studies of Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing 100083, China |
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Abstract This study uses the pitch projection method to synthesize teaching speech with the appropriate standard voice. The teaching speech is synthesized by turning lexicon tones in the learners' speech into standard tones, while keeping the segments and timbie unchanged. This simplifies the complex variations in the speech signal except for the tones. Then, the system is used for tone training Japanese students based on the synthesized Mandarin two-syllable words. The training results show that this synthesized speech method is superior to a standard voice method with improved perception and production, as well as generalized production. The training results for the synthesized speech method are far better than a control group without training. Most of the results are statistically significant. Tests also show the existence of a selective attention mechanism in the human brain when learning speech. Thus, this study provides an experimental and theoretical basis for speech synthesized methods to be integrated into computer-assisted Mandarin tone learning systems.
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| Keywords
phonetic teaching
language learning
speech synthesis
pitch projection
tone
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Issue Date: 15 February 2017
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2017,
Vol. 57
