華語為「四聲以辨義」的「聲調語言」，學習者母語是否為「聲調語言」，往往影響其華語發音表現。本研究分析24 位國際生在臺灣學習華語三年期間的發音發展變化，以此探討學習者母語之具有聲調特色與否，對於華語發音的長期發展有何影響？結果發現，兩組相比，「聲調語言」母語者於二聲、三聲，及聲隨韻母，連續三年皆具有顯著優勢；「非聲調語言」母語者於一聲、塞擦音，具有第一年的顯著優勢，一年之後則兩組無別。至於第四聲、單韻母，則同為兩組的極高度偏誤。由上可知，發音表現確實因為母語是否為「聲調語言」，及學習階段的發展而有所變化。本文據此建議，學習者母語是否為聲調語言，可作為第一年發音教學的差異化參考指標。

Mandarin Chinese is a tone language with four distinctive tones which vary with different lexical meanings. Therefore, Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learners' native language with or without tonal characteristics to some degree affects their Chinese pronunciation developments. Twenty-four international students who had learnt Chinese in Taiwan for three years were divided into two groups based on whether their native language is tonal. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether CSL learners whose native language is tonal outperforms those whose native language is non-tonal in terms of their pronunciation developments. The results showed that the tone language speakers outperformed the non-tone language speakers in terms of the second tone, the third tone and the nasal finals across three years. On the other hand, the non-tone language speakers outperformed the tone language speakers in terms of the first tone and the affricates only during the first year of learning. After the first year, the significant difference in first tone and affricates was not evident. This study, therefore, suggests that learners' native language with or without tonal characteristics should serve as one of the indicators for class grouping in the first year's pronunciation instruction.