Tone Patterns in Chinese EFL Learners’ Read Speech

This study employs a method in experimental phonetics to investigate the use of tones in 45 Chinese EFL learners’ read speech. The study is based on O’Connor & Arnold’s (1973) descriptions of tones of English, and takes the recorded spoken data of 8 English-speaking British university students as the norm for comparison. Findings of the study indicate that, so far as primary tones are concerned, most of the learners know how to use falling and rising tones to a satisfactory extent, but serious problems prevail in their use of level tones. Further, many learners could not express their attitudes and moods by using appropriate secondary tones. As many of the characteristics found in these learners have also been reported to exist in EFL learners of other cultural and ethnic backgrounds, the results of this study seem to confirm the belief that there exists an interlanguage intonation system. This study has important implications for how EFL learners should convey their intended meanings with the proper use of different tones, as well as for the teaching of intonation in L2 pedagogy.