The Description And Analysis On The Vowel System Of Interlanguage Of Non-English Major College Students

The research focuses on the production of English single vowels for non-English major college students whose native language is Mandarin. The phonetic analysis concentrates on vowel quality and duration. Based on the acoustic observation on English vowels, the vowel systems of the Interlanguage, English and Mandarin are established and compared. In addition the vowel phonology in the interlanguage is described and analyzed in Optimality Theory, in which the effect of transfer, the influence of TL and the role of typological markedness are explored. The findings of the vowel system in IL are as follows:The vowel pairs such as [i] [I], [u] [?], and [o], [?] are distinguished primarily by duration. The distinction of vowel quality is recessive. In vowel chart, the two circles of vowel pairs overlap to a large degree.The vowel height distinction in IL can be divided into three degree-high, mid and low, rather than five degree of TL, which is the result of transfer of Mandarin vowel system.The learners have difficulty in producing mid vowels. The mid high vowel [o] in British English is interpreted as a mid back round vowel [?] in IL; the mid low vowel [?] in English is interpreted as a mid central vowel [a] in IL.