Effects of two training procedures in cross-language perception of tones

This study evaluated two perceptual training procedures that might be used to increase native English (NE) and native Chinese (NC) listeners’ ability to discriminate the mid- vs. low-tone contrast in Thai under two inter-stimulus-interval (ISI) conditions (500 and 1500 ms). Participants received training using either a two-alternative forced-choice identification (ID) procedure or a categorial same/different discrimination (SD) procedure. The results obtained indicated that (a) NC listeners outperformed NE listeners both before and after training under both ISI conditions; (b) before training, NC listeners’ discrimination was better under the longer ISI while NE listeners’ performance was comparable across the two ISIs, but no ISI difference was observed for either group of listeners after training; (c) both NE and NC listeners’ performances significantly improved after training, but the improvement was significantly greater among NE listeners under both ISI conditions, and (d), the amount of improvement was comparable across the two training procedures and across the two ISI conditions. These results suggest that both ID and SD training procedures were equally effective in improving NE and NC listeners’ discrimination of the mid- vs. low-tone contrast in Thai and that prior experience with a tone language may prove advantageous in learning another tone language.