[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-289927-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-289927-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","observing-pitch-gestures-favors-the-learning-of-spanish-intonation-by-mandarin-speakers","OBSERVING PITCH GESTURES FAVORS THE LEARNING OF SPANISH INTONATION BY MANDARIN SPEAKERS","","The study examines whether observing pitch gestures supports second-language (L2) intonation learning, focusing on tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic Spanish were trained on three Spanish intonation patterns involving a low nuclear-accent tone using either pitch gestures (experimental group) or the same training without them (control group). Pre–post outcomes show significant intonational improvement with gesture observation, and musical ability moderates gains: weaker-musical participants benefit more.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/observing-pitch-gestures-favors-the-learning-of-spanish-intonation-by-mandarin-speakers/289927/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/observing-pitch-gestures-favors-the-learning-of-spanish-intonation-by-mandarin-speakers/289927.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"นรินทร์","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-09-17",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",14,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the main research question of the study?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Whether observing pitch gestures helps Mandarin speakers learn Spanish intonation patterns, especially for tonal-language learners.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How were participants trained and compared?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Sixty-four Mandarin speakers learned three Spanish intonation patterns in a pre–post design; one group received training with pitch gestures and the other received the same training without pitch gestures.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What did the results show about intonational learning?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The experimental group significantly improved intonational production outcomes, and participants with weaker musical abilities showed greater benefits from observing pitch gestures.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},289927,1789638543,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},2336475104957,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c6bd8a5076e1?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1787554080175789136","Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41 (2019), 5–32 doi:10.1017/S0272263117000316  \nResearch Article   \nOBSERVING PITCH GESTURES FAVORS THE LEARNING OF SPANISH INTONATION BY MANDARIN SPEAKERS  \nChenjie Yuan*  \nUniversitat Pompeu Fabra Santiago Gonza´lez-Fuente Universitat Pompeu Fabra Florence Baills Universitat Pompeu Fabra Pilar Prieto  \nInstitucio´ Catalana deRecerca i EstudisAvançats (IREA) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra  \nAbstract  \nRecent studies on the learning of L2 prosody have suggested that pitch gestures can enhance the learning ofthe L2 lexical tones. Yet it remains unclear whether the use of these gestures can aid the learning of L2 intonation, especially by tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic-level Spanish were asked to learn three Spanish intonation patterns, all involving a low tone on the nuclear accent. In a  \nThis research has been funded by two research grants awarded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2015-66533-P) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014 SGR-925), both to the Prosodic Studies Group. The second author also acknowledges a FPU 2012-05893 grant awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Our gratitude goes to Ms. Huan Zhang, Mr. Wei Cao, and Ms. Nan Huang, who provided us with multimodal experimental classrooms and helped us to collect the oral data at Xi’an International Studies University in Xi’an, China. We are indebted to Joan Carles Mora, who read a first version of the manuscript and offered us many insightful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank Joan Borrs-Comes, who helped us with the statistics. Special thanks also go to two anonymous reviewers and the editors, Susan Gass and Bill VanPatten, for invaluable comments and feedback.  \n The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at [https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id](https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id5york:932719)[5](https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id5york:932719)[york:932719](https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id5york:932719)  \n*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Chenjie Yuan, Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: chenjie. [yuan@upf.edu](yuan@upf.edu)  \nCopyright © Cambridge University Press 2017  \n[https://doi.org/10.1017/S02722631](https://doi.org/10.1017/S02722631)17000316 Published online by Cambridge University Press  \n6 Chenjie Yuan, Santiago Gonz´alez-Fuente, Florence Baills, and Pilar Prieto  \npre-post test experimental design, half of the participants received intonation training without the use of pitch gestures (the control group) while the other half received the same training but with pitch gestures representing nuclear intonation contours (the experimental group). Musical (melody, pitch) abilities were also measured. The results revealed that (a) the experimental group significantly improved intonational production outcomes, and (b) even though participants with stronger musical abilities performed better, those with weaker musical abilities benefited more from observing pitch gestures.  \nIt is widely accepted that learning the pronunciation of a second language is especially difficult for L2 learners in their adulthood, even for those who have achieved nativelike performance in other linguistic aspects, such as vocabulary and morphosyntax (e.g., Bongaerts, Van Summeren, Planken, & Schils, 1997; Mennen & de Leeuw, 2014; Morales, 2008) . In part, this is because successful L2 pronunciation involves the ability to reproduce not only individual phonemes but also the unique prosodic patterns of the target language. Importantly, recent research on the acquisition of L2 pronunciation has shown that segmental errors tend to be less predictive of the listeners’ comprehension of L2 speech than prosodic errors ","cbCais1TXcL6HZ2z","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCais1TXcL6HZ2z","pdf",502487,28,"English","# Abstract\n## Participants and training design\n## Measures and results\n## Background on L2 pronunciation and embodied cognition","[{\"question\":\"What is the main research question of the study?\",\"answer\":\"Whether observing pitch gestures helps Mandarin speakers learn Spanish intonation patterns, especially for tonal-language learners.\"},{\"question\":\"How were participants trained and compared?\",\"answer\":\"Sixty-four Mandarin speakers learned three Spanish intonation patterns in a pre–post design; one group received training with pitch gestures and the other received the same training without pitch gestures.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the results show about intonational learning?\",\"answer\":\"The experimental group significantly improved intonational production outcomes, and participants with weaker musical abilities showed greater benefits from observing pitch gestures.\"}]","OBSERVING PITCH GESTURES FAVORS THE LEARNING OF SPANISH INTONATION BY MANDARIN SPEAKERS | PDF",71]