The Production of L2 Vowels by Chinese EFL Learners: An Acoustic Perspective on Pre-fortis Clipping&#x0002A;

doi:10.65961/AJELT-2010-1-005

PDF(374 KB)

Asian Journal of English Language Teaching ›› 2010, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (1) : 81-94. DOI: 10.65961/AJELT-2010-1-005

Articles

The Production of L2 Vowels by Chinese EFL Learners: An Acoustic Perspective on Pre-fortis Clipping^*

Weijing ZHOU

Author information +

History +

Abstract

This study examines the acquisition of pre-fortis clipping by eight Chinese EFL learners (CEFLLs). The data were collected in the phonetics laboratory at Cambridge University and analyzed with reference to eight British Received Pronunciation speakers (BRPSs). Three results were found: (1) there are signifi- cant differences between the average vowel duration in pre-stop contexts by CEFLLs and BRPSs; (2) CEFLLs' greatest difficulties lie in the production of / iː / and / ɜː / before the bilabial stops, / ɔː / and / ɜː / before velar stops, / uː / before both the bilabial and velar stops, / ɒ / before bilabial stops, / æ / before both bilabial and velar stops and / ɪ / isn all the pre-stop contexts; and / ɪ / pre- fortis clipping is the most problematic for CEFLLs in the pre-bilabial stop context. These findings have significant implications for the teaching of EFL phonetics in China.

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

Weijing ZHOU. (2010). The Production of L2 Vowels by Chinese EFL Learners: An Acoustic Perspective on Pre-fortis Clipping^*.Asian Journal of English Language Teaching , 20(1): 81-94. https://doi.org/10.65961/AJELT-2010-1-005

References

Anderson-Hsieh, J., & Venkatagiri, H. (1994). Syllable duration and pausing in the speech of Chinese EFL speakers.TESOL Quarterly, 28(4), 807-812.
Ashby M.,& Maidment. J. (2005). Introducing phonetic science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, B., & Mees, I. M. (2008). Practical phonetics and phonology: A resource book for students (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Flege J. E.(1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language (pp. 233-272). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Flege, J. E., & MacKay, I. R. A. (2004). Perceiving vowels in a second language.Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(1), 1-34.
Flege J. E., Munro M. J., & MacKay, I. R. A. (1995). Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(5), 3125-3134.
Ladefoged, P. (2005). A course in phonetics (5th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.
James L.,& Smith, O. (2006). Get rid of your accent. Hong Kong: BATCS Ltd. Jones, D. (1972). An outline of English phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kent R. D.,& Read, C. (1992). The acoustic analysis of speech. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group.
Munro, M. J. (1993). Production of English vowels by native speakers of Arabic: Acoustic measurements and accentedness ratings.Language and Speech, 36(1), 39-66.
Roach, P. (1991). English phonetics and phonology: A practical course (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strange W., Edman T. R., & Jenkins J. J. (1979). Acoustic and phonological factors in vowel identification.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 5(4), 643-656.
Wang, X., & Munro, M. J. (1999). The perception of English tense-lax vowel pairs by native Mandarin speakers: The effect of training on attention to temporal and spectral cues. Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences: Vol. 3, San Francisco (pp. 125-129).
Wong, F. C. F. (2006). Durational cues to English vowels and final consonants and their acquisition by speakers of Cantonese. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Cambridge.

Funding

* This project was assisted by Jiangsu Provincial Education Bureau in 2009 as a subproject of “The Construction of Phonetics Lab and Its Application” in JUST (GS 20091003).