Thesis (M.A.) - Indiana University, East Asian Languages & Cultures, 2015The purpose of the thesis is to study the acoustic variation of Mandarin tones produced in context by native Mandarin speakers (Study I) and how these acoustic variations of Mandarin tones influence L2 learners’ identification of Mandarin tones (Study II). Study I revealed that both F0 contour and F0 height of the two tone sequence of disyllabic non words from L1 Chinese were influenced by both syllable position and tonal context (conflicting/compatible context). Study II tested the identification of Mandarin tones by L1 English learners of Chinese in both monosyllable and two tone sequence of disyllabic non-words by using DMDX (a software for the experimental control and timing of stimulus display); in terms of how accuracy rates, identification sensitivity, error patterns, and reaction times are influenced by tonal context, syllable position, and learning experience. This study found that both syllable position and context affected the tone identification of L1 English learners of Chinese. Tones in monosyllables were identified with the highest accuracy and sensitivity, and shortest reaction time, followed by tones in the final syllable and tones in the initial syllable. Additionally, fewer errors were made in the compatible context than the conflicting context. With more learning experience, the effect of the compatible/conflicting context decreased for both tones in the initial syllable and final syllable tasks. The identification accuracy and sensitivity of Tone 1 (H) and Tone 4 (HL) were better than Tone 2 (LH) and Tone 3 (L) among the three tasks. The confusion between Tone 2 (LH) and Tone 3 (L) was most salient. This thesis helps fill the current knowledge gap concerning L2 learners’ identification difficulty of two tone sequence of Mandarin lexical tones, caused by the acoustic variation that existed in native Mandarin speakers’ production. This new information contributes to a deeper understanding of context effect on Mandarin tone identification of L2 learners. This can benefit teachers in predicting the points of difficulty in learning Mandarin tones and assist students to improve their tone identification in context.