Quantity Convergence, Quality Divergence: Disentangling Fluency and Accuracy in L2 Mandarin Prosody

This linguistic research study analyzes how Vietnamese learners of Mandarin Chinese acquire prosodic patterns, finding that advanced learners achieve native-like quantity in speech boundaries but develop inverted structural mapping patterns. The study reveals a trade-off between maintaining fluent output and achieving accurate prosodic structure in second language acquisition.

• →Advanced Vietnamese Mandarin learners converge to native speaker levels in prosodic boundary quantity but diverge significantly in structural accuracy.
• →Learners invert the native prosodic pattern by demoting Subject-Verb boundaries while promoting Verb-Object boundaries.
• →High-proficiency learners prioritize maintaining fluent phrasal output over achieving correct prosodic structure.
• →The study demonstrates non-linear acquisition patterns in the syntax-prosody interface of second language learning.
• →Results suggest fossilization occurs where learners develop stable but inaccurate prosodic mapping strategies.