An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Speech Perception And Production

Although speech perception is essential for communication in human society,many aspects have not been fully understood,including the order of speech perception and speech production and the relationship between the two.There are many debates about human speech perception and speech production: some scholars claim that humans complete the speech perception process by imitating pronunciation gestures,while others argue that humans rely on the auditory system to complete the speech perception process.This thesis is a quantitative inquiry on the relationship between speech perception and production under the framework of Motor Theory,Direct-Realist Theory,General Auditory Theory and Speech Learning Model.Specifically,I designed and carried out English perception and production experiments on 21 Chinese learners of English whose mother tongue is Chaoshan dialect.This study further explored the effects of category assimilation and foreign language proficiency on L2 speech perception and L2 speech production.The findings showed that the participants' error rate of speech perception was lower than that of speech production,which implied that the speech perception was prior to speech production.However,no correlation was found between speech perception and production.In terms of theoretical models,the present findings supported the General Auditory Theory and Speech Learning Model,and partly disagreed with the Motor theory and Direct-Realist Theory.The study also showed that the students in Chaoshan region had more difficulties in single-category assimilation than that of two-category assimilation.In addition,the foreign language proficiency of the participants had no influence on speech perception,but had an impact on speech production.Pedagogically,therefore,instructors in the English classroom are advised to help students correct the phenomenon single-category assimilation immediately and pay more attention to teaching the knowledge of English phonetic system.