A Study Of Algerian And Chinese Students' Acquisition Of The English Vowels

This study is limited to vowels.It is centered on pronunciation of English monophthongs produced by nonnative speakers of English.The study examined two main acoustic parameters of English vowels,namely vowel duration and FI and F2 frequencies.Subjects of this study were a total of 12 speakers with a balanced number of gender:6 Algerian and 6 Chinese L2 English learners.Target monophthongal vowels were produced in CVC context.Vowel boundaries were determined manually from visual inspection.Vowel duration was measured from onset of the vowel to the offset.FI and F2 frequencies of each vowel were computed from a broad-band spectrogram with superimposed formant tracking at the temporal midpoint using the Burg algorithm implemented in Praat.The current study has also used Lobanov method for vowel normalization.The data for each group(Chinese and Algerian L2 English learners)was examined and then findings of each group were compared to those of the other group.Chinese and Algerian L2 learners were comparable in the sense that both subject groups represent non-specialized academic users of EFL.In addition,data for the two nonnative subject groups was compared to that of native speakers of English.The aim of the comparison is to explore whether nonnative speakers of English have attained a near native-like acoustic characteristics of English monophthongal vowels.Findings of the research indicated that vowel duration is controlled by four main factors,namely vowel openness,vowel length,gender,and voicing.Generally speaking,nonnative speakers of English differed from native speakers of English in terms of producing duration and formant structure of English monophthongs.Findings of this study could be used to guide L2 English teachers' selection of tools for their learners to draw perceptual feedback for effective diagnosis of the Iearners'progress and pronunciation errors.The current study also recommends English L2 teachers and instructors to use advanced techniques that help displaying visual presentations of acoustic characteristics of speech sounds on screen,and encourage their learners to use them on their own or in groups outside the classroom.The current research,therefore,should hold much promise for English pronunciation both in teaching and learning concepts.