A Study Of English Vowel Production By Chinese EFL Learners

Previous research has found that L1 transfer plays a very important role in the acquisition of second language pronunciation. L2 learners tend to transfer phonemes, intonation, or features in their first language to a second language. However, some studies have found second language pronunciation was not necessarily influenced by L1, since L2 learners can acquire non-native phonemes or features in L2.This study aims to further investigate the influence of L1 transfer by examining Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners'production of five English front vowels (/i, I, e, E, Q/). Fifteen Chinese EFL learners and eight native English speakers participated in the study. Both the Chinese EFL learners and the native English speakers'productions of the five vowels were assessed by three native English speakers in an identification task and a goodness rating task. The results of the Chinese EFL learners'vowel productions revealed higher percentages of correct identification of /e, i, I/ than those of /E/ and /Q/ as well as a high degree of confusion between phonemes within /i-I/ and /E-Q/ pairs. The results of the goodness rating task showed that /i, I, Q/ produced by the Chinese EFL students were rated as more native-like than /e/ and /E/.The participants'productions of the five target vowels were also measured in terms of vowel quantity (duration) and vowel quality (F1 and F2). It was found that except /Q/, the other vowels (i.e., /i, I, e, E/) were all longer in the Chinese EFL learners'pronunciation than in the native speakers'. In addition, the Chinese EFL learners did not distinguish /E/ and /Q/ temporally, while native English speakers did. The results of F1 and F2 measurements indicated that the Chinese EFL learners'productions of /i, I, e, E, Q/ were all significantly different from those by native English speakers with respect to F1 and/or F2. For example, the F1 and F2 of /I/ produced by the Chinese EFL students were 406 Hz and 2122 Hz respectively, significantly different from those of /I/ produced by the native speakers (468 Hz and 1775 Hz respectively).In addition, this study tentatively investigates the influence of the Chinese participants'dialectal background on their English pronunciation. It was revealed that /i, I, e, E, Q/ produced by the Chinese participants from the southern dialectal regions were both better identified and better rated than the same vowels produced by those from the northern dialectal regions. However, acoustic measurements of the vowels produced by the two dialectal groups showed different patterns. Reasons for the differences wait for further exploration.This study concludes that the Chinese EFL learners'pronunciation of English vowels was influenced by L1 transfer. The Chinese EFL learners'better performance on English /i/ is a good example, as it exists in both L1 and L2. Moreover, the high degree of confusion within /i-I/ and /E-Q/ pairs can be accounted for by the fact that tense/lax contrasts exist in English, but are absent in Mandarin Chinese.The study not only contributes to our understanding of the role of L1 transfer in second language acquisition, but also sheds light on how to improve Chinese EFL teaching and learning.