This book addresses important issues of speech processing and language learning in Chinese. It highlights perception and production of speech in healthy and clinical populations and in children and adults. This book provides diverse perspectives and reviews of cutting-edge research in past decades on how Chinese speech is processed and learned. Along with each chapter, future research directions have been discussed. With these unique features and the broad coverage of topics, this book appeals to not only scholars and students who study speech perception in preverbal infants and in children and adults learning Chinese, but also to teachers with interests in pedagogical applications in teaching Chinese as Second Language.

Huei-Mei Liu received her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at University of Washington, and is currently Professor of Special Education at the National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. She has been the principal investigator of many research grants on speech/language development and disorders in Mandarin-speaking children and received several research awards from the National Taiwan Normal University and Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan). She has published over 40 articles on the topics of language development and disorders. She is currently Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology. She is motivated to edit the current volume and bring together original research papers and review papers that address cutting-edge issues of Mandarin speech perception and production development in children with typical and atypical development. 
Feng-Ming Tsao received his Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington, and is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of Imaging Center for Integrated Body, Mind and Culture Research at the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. His research interests are speech perception development in infancy and language processing in children with communicative disorders. He has been the principal investigator of many research grants and received research award from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan). He has published some 40 articles in journals and edited volumes on speech perception in infants, children with language impairments and adults. By editing the current volume, he organized review chapters that addressed issues of learning Chinese languages.
Ping Li received his Ph.D. from Leiden University and is currently Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He previously served as Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences and Technology and Associate Director of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Li's research focuses on the neural and computational bases of language learning, bilingualisms, and reading comprehension, and has published 10 books or edited volumes and over 150 articles on these topics. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Brain and Language and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences.

Autorentext
Huei-Mei Liu received her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at University of Washington, and is currently Professor of Special Education at the National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. She has been the principal investigator of many research grants on speech/language development and disorders in Mandarin-speaking children and received several research awards from the National Taiwan Normal University and Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan). She has published over 40 articles on the topics of language development and disorders. She is currently Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology. She is motivated to edit the current volume and bring together original research papers and review papers that address cutting-edge issues of Mandarin speech perception and production development in children with typical and atypical development. 
Feng-Ming Tsao received his Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington, and is currently Professor of Psychology and Director of Imaging Center for Integrated Body, Mind and Culture Research at the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. His research interests are speech perception development in infancy and language processing in children with communicative disorders. He has been the principal investigator of many research grants and received research award from the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan). He has published some 40 articles in journals and edited volumes on speech perception in infants, children with language impairments and adults. By editing the current volume, he organized review chapters that addressed issues of learning Chinese languages.
Ping Li received his Ph.D. from Leiden University and is currently Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He previously served as Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Information Sciences and Technology and Associate Director of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Li's research focuses on the neural and computational bases of language learning, bilingualisms, and reading comprehension, and has published 10 books or edited volumes and over 150 articles on these topics. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Brain and Language and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- Part 1: Acoustics, Perception, and Production of Lexical tones (in Adults).- 2. The Phonetic Realization of Mandarin Phoneme Inventory: The Canonical and the Variants.- 3. Acoustic-based and Knowledge-based Processing of Mandarin Tones by Native and Non-native Speakers.- 4. Individual Differences in Lexical Tone Learning.- Part II: Neural Representations.- 5. Native and Nonnative Processing of Acoustic and Phonological Information of Lexical Tones in Chinese: Behavioral and Neural Correlates.- 6. Neurophysiological Studies of Mandarin Lexical Tone Acquisition in the Early Childhood.- 7. Neural Processing of Tone Sandhi in Production and Perception: The Case of Mandarin Tone 3 Sandhi.- Part III: Domain-General Transfer and Cross-Modal Integration.- 8. The Effect of Musical Experience and Congenital Amusia on Lexical Tone Perception, Production, and Learning: A review.- 9. Multi-modal Perception of Tone.- Part IV: Development from Infancy through Childhood.- 10. Lexical Tone Perception Development in Infancy.- 11. Early Word Recognition and Word Learning in Mandarin Learning Children.- 12. Speech Development in Mandarin-Speaking Children.- 13. Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence of Speech Processing in Chinese-Speaking Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review and Future Directions.