Effects Of Language Training On Mandarin Learners' Perception Of American English Tense /i/ And Lax /I/

The thesis attempts to explore the role of Mandarin vowel categories in American English vowel acquisition on the basis of Speech Learning Model and Speech Assimilation Model. The study consists of Identification Experiment of American tense /i/ and lax /I/, Discrimination Experiment of American tense /i/ and lax /I/, and Discrimination Experiment of American tense /i/, lax /I/ and Mandarin /i/. It attempts to investigate: 1) Do Mandarin learners of English perceive American tense /i/ and lax /I/ in the same way as Americans? If not, in what aspects do they differ? 2) To what extent can language training improve Mandarin learners'perception of American tense /i/ and lax /I/? 3) Do Mandarin learners perceive American tense /i/ and lax /I/ within Mandarin vowel system, or re-organize their vowel system?Identification Experiment of American tense /i/ and lax /I/ shows Mandarin learners differ significantly from Americans and control group differs significantly from experiment group in identifying American tense /i/ and lax /I/. However, Discrimination Experiment of American tense /i/ and lax /I/ indicates that Mandarin learners and Americans behave homogenously in discriminating American tense /i/ and lax /I/, which shows that vowel perception is a continuous process. The experiments indicate that identification and discrimination of vowels are not directly interrelated. Discrimination...