Comparison of Chinese and English Rhythm Produced by Chinese Speakers in Quiet and Noise

The current study investigated the rhythm patterns of Chinese and English produced by native Chinese speakers in quiet and noise conditions. A series of rhythm metrics were measured and analyzed. The results showed that the rhythm patterns of the speech produced by Chinese speakers in noise were significantly different from the speech produced in quiet. More specifically, the duration of vowels in Chinese changed greatly in the context of noise, a typical result of the Lombard effect. While in English, it was the duration of consonants changed greatly in noise, reflecting that the crux of the production of English in the context of noise for Chinese speakers was mainly concentrated on consonants. These results could shed lights on the rhythmic difficulties for Chinese speakers in the noise and provide some implications for English prosody teaching.