在聲調習得的研究中，關於聲調錯誤率在位置上的分布分析相對較少。本文對母語為英語，日語和韓語的六十名漢語學習者的聲調進行調查，著重對聲調錯誤率在各層韻律單位（韻律詞，短語及句子）的不同位置（音節）進行比較。調查結果發現，盡管英日韓三種語言有不同的語調韻律結構，但母語為英日韓的學生在習得漢語聲調時有一些共同的位置性錯誤。本文根據實驗結果總結了四類錯誤率最高的位置，大多數的錯誤集中在各層韻律單位的首位或末位音節。在第二語言聲調習得中，位置對聲調表現，尤其是曲折調的錯誤率有比較明顯的影響。這些位置包括諸如詞首或短語首位（對高降調或第四聲的影響），詞尾或短語甚至句子末位（對上升調或第二聲的影響），還有焦點前的音節（焦點對緊鄰聲調，尤其是焦點前的聲調的影響）等等。

Although tone error analysis has been the focus of research in the study of second language acquisition of Chinese, very little of this research investigates the positional effects in a cross-linguistic context. The present study looks into the positional effects of Chinese lexical tones in L2 research data at both word and sentence levels in varying prosodic units including prosodic words, phonological phrases, intonation phrases, etc. It surveys the performance of non-native tonal productions, particularly the error rates of each tone type, made by sixty learners of modern standard Chinese with different first language backgrounds: English, Japanese, and Korean. As a result, similar error patterns across these three groups regarding the positional effects were found. For pedagogical purposes, this study identifies four types of the most vulnerable positions (i.e., with the highest error rates), and concludes that the majority of them are located at prosodic unit edges. These positions include the word- and phrase-final positions for rising tones, word- and phrase-initial positions for falling tones, and the syllables immediately preceding sentence focus, etc.