Doctoral Dissertation Research: the Acquisition of Tone in a Second Language

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Much research over the past several decades has been dedicated to studying the challenges and successes of learning an additional language beyond one's native tongue. However, this body of research has focused on just a handful of well-known Indo-European and East Asian languages, which account for less than 1% of the world's 6-7,000 languages. A consequence is that little is known about the acquisition of many linguistic features. One such feature is tone, the use of pitch to distinguish words. This gap is especially unfortunate given that over half of the world's languages are tone languages, and that second language speakers of tone languages are increasing in number, both in the U.S. (as more people choose to study Mandarin Chinese, for instance) and worldwide, often due to language revitalization efforts in parts of the world where tone languages abound. In both contexts, second language speakers often struggle to produce and perceive tone, even when they are otherwise considered to be competent speakers of the language. New research is needed in order to uncover the differences and difficulties involved in acquiring tones. As a case study, this dissertation examines the acquisition of tone among adolescents learning Sierra Juarez Zapotec, an endangered language traditionally spoken in San Pablo Macuiltianguis (Oaxaca, Mexico). The learners are native Spanish speakers studying Zapotec as a second language through a language revitalization program. Six months of video and audio-recorded Zapotec classroom data will be transcribed and analyzed in order to examine tone learning over time. This approach allows current theories of second language acquisition to be evaluated. In particular, the study tests a frequency-driven theory of second language acquisition: the claim that the more frequently a learner is exposed to a linguistic feature, the easier that feature will be to learn. It also explores factors that mediate this frequency effect when it comes to tone learning.