Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin
Learning Mandarin has become increasingly important in the Western world but is rather difficult to be learnt by speakers of non-tone languages. Since tone language learning requires very precise tonal ability, we set out to test whether musical skills, musical status, singing ability, singing behav...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895063/full |
| _version_ | 1828212886877503488 |
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| author | Markus Christiner Markus Christiner Julia Renner Julia Renner Christine Groß Annemarie Seither-Preisler Jan Benner Jan Benner Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider |
| author_facet | Markus Christiner Markus Christiner Julia Renner Julia Renner Christine Groß Annemarie Seither-Preisler Jan Benner Jan Benner Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider |
| author_sort | Markus Christiner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Learning Mandarin has become increasingly important in the Western world but is rather difficult to be learnt by speakers of non-tone languages. Since tone language learning requires very precise tonal ability, we set out to test whether musical skills, musical status, singing ability, singing behavior during childhood, basic auditory skills, and short-term memory ability contribute to individual differences in Mandarin performance. Therefore, we developed Mandarin tone discrimination and pronunciation tasks to assess individual differences in adult participants’ (N = 109) tone language ability. Results revealed that short-term memory capacity, singing ability, pitch perception preferences, and tone frequency (high vs. low tones) were the most important predictors, which explained individual differences in the Mandarin performances of our participants. Therefore, it can be concluded that training of basic auditory skills, musical training including singing should be integrated in the educational setting for speakers of non-tone languages who learn tone languages such as Mandarin. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:44:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-924d2a2f36c64932a8e5179b42773309 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:44:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-924d2a2f36c64932a8e5179b427733092022-12-22T03:28:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-06-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.895063895063Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning MandarinMarkus Christiner0Markus Christiner1Julia Renner2Julia Renner3Christine Groß4Annemarie Seither-Preisler5Jan Benner6Jan Benner7Peter Schneider8Peter Schneider9Peter Schneider10Peter Schneider11Center for Systematic Musicology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Graz, Graz, AustriaJazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, LatviaDepartment of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaJazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, LatviaCenter for Systematic Musicology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Graz, Graz, AustriaDepartment of Neuroradiology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, GermanyDepartment of Neurology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, GermanyCenter for Systematic Musicology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Graz, Graz, AustriaJazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, LatviaDepartment of Neuroradiology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, GermanyDepartment of Neurology, Section Biomagnetism Heidelberg Medical School, Heidelberg, GermanyLearning Mandarin has become increasingly important in the Western world but is rather difficult to be learnt by speakers of non-tone languages. Since tone language learning requires very precise tonal ability, we set out to test whether musical skills, musical status, singing ability, singing behavior during childhood, basic auditory skills, and short-term memory ability contribute to individual differences in Mandarin performance. Therefore, we developed Mandarin tone discrimination and pronunciation tasks to assess individual differences in adult participants’ (N = 109) tone language ability. Results revealed that short-term memory capacity, singing ability, pitch perception preferences, and tone frequency (high vs. low tones) were the most important predictors, which explained individual differences in the Mandarin performances of our participants. Therefore, it can be concluded that training of basic auditory skills, musical training including singing should be integrated in the educational setting for speakers of non-tone languages who learn tone languages such as Mandarin.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895063/fullsinging abilityfundamental and spectral listenertone frequencyMandarinmusical abilityshort-term memory |
| spellingShingle | Markus Christiner Markus Christiner Julia Renner Julia Renner Christine Groß Annemarie Seither-Preisler Jan Benner Jan Benner Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Peter Schneider Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin Frontiers in Psychology singing ability fundamental and spectral listener tone frequency Mandarin musical ability short-term memory |
| title | Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin |
| title_full | Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin |
| title_fullStr | Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin |
| title_short | Singing Mandarin? What Short-Term Memory Capacity, Basic Auditory Skills, and Musical and Singing Abilities Reveal About Learning Mandarin |
| title_sort | singing mandarin what short term memory capacity basic auditory skills and musical and singing abilities reveal about learning mandarin |
| topic | singing ability fundamental and spectral listener tone frequency Mandarin musical ability short-term memory |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895063/full |
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