An Acoustic Analysis Of English Vowels Produced By English Learners From Inner Mongolia Western Dialect Area

The most practical purpose of language use is to serve communication.For this reason,phonetic acquisition plays a primary role in learning a new language.A great number of descriptive and acoustic studies have been done to investigate the English phonemes produced by speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Chinese dialects.For learners from Inner Mongolia western dialect(IMWD)area,their English phonemes are investigated on a basis of the descriptive study.Thus,an acoustic analysis is indispensable.Based on comparative analysis,a comparison and contrast of English vowels' formants between Inner Mongolia western dialect speakers(IMWDSs)and Received Pronunciation speakers(RPSs)is carried out.Thirty university students whose mother tongue is IMWD are used as the subjects in the study.Their sounds are recorded when they are required to read 11 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs.Then the sounds recorded are put into PRAAT to get their formants which are the most important factors in determining a vowel.Finally the formants of vowels produced by IMWDSs are compared with the formants of vowels issued by RPSs to explore the current situation of English monophthongs and diphthongs produced by IMWDSs and to learn about what problems IMWDSs have in learning English monophthongs and diphthongs.Results show the following points.As to monophthongs,IMWDSs have a more accurate acquisition of front and central monophthongs than back monophthongs.In addition,IMWDSs have a lot of difficulties in acquiring /?/,/?:/,/?/ and /u:/.As for diphthongs,IMWDSs have a more accurate production of /a?/ and /??/ and the most inaccurate production of /e?/,/a?/ and /??/.Besides,IMWDSs tend to stress the second constituent of diphthongs and sometimes incline to monophthongize diphthongs.This study investigates IMWDSs' English phonemes from the acoustic perspective and has practical significance.For one thing,it helps English learners and teachers in IMWD area have a fair idea of the general situation of English vowels' acquisition of IMWDSs.For another,findings of this thesis provide some advice for English phonetic learning and teaching in IMWD area.