Stops and affricates are known as the main diffculties faced by learners of Chinese. This paper aims at analyzing the production and perception of Mandarin Chinese obstruents by native Spanish learners. Text reading tasks and identification tests were carried out for data elicitation. The results show: 1. perception and production do not display the same outcome. In this study, production seems to be better than perception. 2. results also vary across phonemes within the same category. 3. place of articulation and aspiration has little influence on perception, but these variables exert an influence on production.
Stops and affricates are known as the main diffculties faced by learners of Chinese. This paper aims at analyzing the production and perception of Mandarin Chinese obstruents by native Spanish learners. Text reading tasks and identification tests were carried out for data elicitation. The results show: 1. perception and production do not display the same outcome. In this study, production seems to be better than perception. 2. results also vary across phonemes within the same category. 3. place of articulation and aspiration has little influence on perception, but these variables exert an influence on production.