台語聲調變調相關研究(如King 1980; Hsu, 1989; Tsay, 2001a, 2001b)已經發現以台語為母語的幼童在語言發展早期就已經掌握了台語變調的規則和型式，但也指出孩童不論年紀仍有相當程度的聲調及變調錯誤。因此本研究目的在分析以台語為母語的幼童的變調以及聲調替代型式，來了解此些錯誤背後的音韻或語言因素。
本研究共募集了二十四位年齡從三歲至六歲以台語為母語的幼童為實驗對象，並有四位成人為對照組。實驗方式為利用電腦化測驗工具使幼童聽完播出的字詞後並跟讀一遍，實驗字詞中包含台語所有音段及聲調。待語料收集完後，則進行轉寫，變調錯誤率計算、聲調替代型式紀錄及統計分析。
本研究主要的結果有: (1) 所有的孩童都能夠發出所有台語中的變調，且變調錯誤率隨年紀增長而遞減；(2) 孩童年紀雖增長，但仍有變調錯誤且頻繁出現；(3) 就個別年紀而言，三歲孩童變調錯誤率最高，六歲則最低；(4) 相較其他變調錯誤率研究，除了入聲調外，本研究的孩童變調錯誤率高出不少；(5)在變調錯誤率中，台語中平調變調的錯誤率最高，其次為高平調變調和低升調變調，而低降調變調的錯誤率最低； (6) 至於聲調替代型式中，高平調和中平調變調後常維持不變調；(7) 變調錯誤率的結果符合並能支持先前語言耗損(language attrition)對台語影響的相關研究高平調和中平調會有混淆的情況，造成錯誤率偏高以及有高低相互取代的情況出現。因此，根據本研究結果，可觀察到孩童隨著年齡增長，已經能大致掌握台語中變調規則，但涉及中平調的變調產出仍受語言耗損的影響。

The current research aims at analyzing the error rate and tone substitution patterns in tone sandhi processes produced by Taiwanese-speaking children. Previous studies (like King, 1980; Hsu, 1989; Tsay, 2001a, 2001b) have shown that children develop tone sandhi patterns at quite an early stage; occasionally, however, tone sandhi errors can still be noticed among older children. Therefore, to understand to what extent children produce tone sandhi errors and what patterns of these errors manifest, the research tries to investigate tone sandhi and error rate and substitution patterns of Taiwanese-speaking children. Twenty-four children aged from three to six and four adults were recruited in an experiment to elicit the tone sandhi productions by using the computerized testing tool to repeat after a list of words containing all segments and tones in Taiwanese. After gathering the recordings, transcription, error rate analysis, tone substitution patterns, and statistical analysis were carried out.
The major findings of the study are: 1) the participants in the study could produce all Taiwanese tone sandhi rules, and their total tone sandhi error rate decreases as they became older; 2) though children became older, the tone sandhi error persisted and occurred frequently; 3) children at age 3 had the highest tone sandhi error rate, while children at age 6 had the lowest; 4) except checked tone sandhi rules, participants’ performances of tone sandhi productions were poorer in comparison with previous studies because of the phonetic similarity or individual differences; 5) T3 sandhi has the lowest error rate, while T7 sandhi has the highest and is followed by T1 and T5 sandhi; 6) in terms of tone substitution patterns, children tended to produce unchanged tone patterns in producing T1 and T7 sandhi; 7) the results of the tone sandhi error rate were consistent with and could support previous literature on the effect language attrition on Taiwanese, in which the mid level tone was confused with the high level tone . Therefore, the study concludes that children recruited in our study could produce all tone sandhi rules but those involving the mid level tone caused by language attrition also existed.

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