An Empirical Study Of The Perception And Production Of English Vowels By Chinese English Learners

In the field of L2 acquisition,the relationship between perception and production receives much attention.However,no consensus has been reached on the existence of significant correlation between perception and production.Three main views are supported by large numbers of empirical data: no relation,mediate correlation,and significant correlation.However,few studies were carried out on the perception-production relation of Chinese English learners.Under the theoretical framework of PAM,40 subjects with even numbers in two genders,who differ in language proficiency are invited to accomplish the perception experiment and the production experiment,in which identification,discrimination,and pronunciation of /?/-/ε/,/ε/-/?/,/?/-/?/,and /?/-/?/ contrasts are observed.Results reveal that the L2 perception range manifests no significant relation to the L2 production range for Chinese EFL learners,and spectral distances,cross language vowel systems,and language proficiencies are demonstrated to have effects on vowel perception and production.1)The correctness of discrimination of L2 learners is demonstrated to have mediated positive correlation to spectral distances.The smaller the spectral difference is,the more challenging vowel contrasts are for learners to discriminate.2)L2 learners’ perception and production is influenced by differences of cross language vowel systems.Generally,differences between L1 and L2 vowel inventories result in different ways of assimilation and categorization during perception,and in turn result in different accuracies in production.Specifically,the ranking of the correctness of discrimination is UC >TC > SC or CG.3)Intermediate level learners have difficulties in perceiving SC and CG contrasts,while advanced level learners demonstrate higher correctness of perception because they transform SC and CG into TC by establishing new phonological categories of phonemes as L2 proficiency increases.The current study further testifies the explanatory power of PAM on the influence of spectral distances and cross language vowel systems on L2 vowel perception.L2 vowel perception is primarily influenced by cross language vowel systems via different assimilation and categorization patterns of L2 vowels and secondarily by spectral differences when two vowels of a contrast are categorized in the same type.Under the influence of perceptual assimilation,categorized L2 vowels are produced similar to L1 counterparts.However,PAM fails to explain the relation between vowel perception and production because the relation is of great complexity,and neither positive nor negative.