This study examined Vietnamese learners’ performance on Mandarin tones to explore the accuracy rate and error patterns of Mandarin tones as well as factors involving in Mandarin tonal acquisition. The results showed that the accuracy rate and error patterns between tonal perception and production were not exactly the same. In terms of the accuracy rate, the overall ranking orders were the same but discrepant in detailed ranking orders. There were two major error patterns: one was the confusion and asymmetrically mutual substitution between Tone 1 and Tone 4, and the other was the unidirectional substitution between Tone 2 and Tone 3. In addition to the transfer effect of learners’ first language, there were other factors affecting tonal acquisition, including the distinctiveness between the target tone and the other tones in the target language and the influence of the Mandarin tone-sandhi rule. |