A Study On The Perception And Production Of Front Vowels And Central Vowels By Changchun English Learners

In English speech,word pronunciation that is composed of vowels and consonants is the carrier of communication,in which vowels play an important role,so the discussion of English vowels has attracted the attention of many researchers.For Chinese English learners,the acquisition of vowels is influenced by their mother tongue and dialects.Learners in different regions speak different dialects and their levels of Mandarin are different,which leads to differences in their English acquisition.This paper will focus on the acquisition of vowels,front and central vowels specifically,by Changchun English learners in Northeast China,including the perception and the production,and analyze the reasons for their deviations of vowel acquisition.The subjects of this study are 38 Changchun English learners who participate in the perception and production experiment respectively.A total of 18 English words are involved in the perception experiment.7 English vowels are located in the initial of,in the middle of and at the end of the word.After the perception experiment,accuracy rates of vowel identification by the subjects are counted to analyze the learners' perceptional performance.In the production experiment,the subjects read the same 18 words and 7 Chinese characters containing front and central vowels in Chinese.After the experiment,the vowels are labelled by Praat,and the duration,F1 and F2 are extracted by using scripts.Then their average and SD values are calculated with the help of SPSS and Excel,and are compared with the corresponding values of native English speakers,and at the same time,the independent-sample t-tests are carried out in order to find out vowel acoustic features of learners and their differences from native speakers.The research questions are as follows:1.How do Changchun English learners perform in their perception of English front and central vowels?2.Compared with native speakers,how do Changchun English learners perform in their production of English front and central vowels?3.What is the relationship between the perception and production of English front and central vowels by Changchun English learners?4.What are the possible reasons for English front and central vowel perception and production deviations by Changchun English learners?It is found that Changchun English learners(CcELs)do better in perceiving English central vowels than front vowels.Respectively speaking,the perception performance of front vowels is ranked as follows: /i:/ > /e/ > /?/ > /?/;the order of central vowel perception performance is as follows: /?/ > /?:/ > /?/.As for the acoustic features of front and central vowels produced by CcELs,the average durations of all the six vowels except /?:/ are longer than native English speakers'(NESs')average durations of corresponding vowels.On the whole the individual difference of the vowel duration by CcELs is rather big.The duration of the initial /?/ by CcELs and NESs is of great difference,and so is the duration of the initial /i:/.Compared with NESs,for /?/,the tongue position is lower and more forward;for /i:/,the tongue position is higher and backer;for /e/,the tongue position is lower and backer;for /?/,the tongue position is higher and more forward;for /?/,the tongue position is lower and more forward;for /?:/,the tongue position is higher and backer and for /?/,the tongue position is lower and backer.For the middle /e/ and /?:/,the significant discrepancy of the tongue height by CcELs and NESs exists.For the middle /i:/ and the initial /?/,CcELs and NESs' tongue advancements have much difference.Moreover,the individual difference of CcELs' tongue positions is very big when the front and central vowels are pronounced in most cases.The relationship between the perception and production of front and central vowels by CcELs is complex and it is related to the positions of vowels in words.For front vowels in the initial position of a word,the relationship is nearly positively correlated;for front vowels in the middle of a word,the relationship is not obvious;for final front vowels /?/ and /i:/ at the end of a word,the relationship between the perception and production is negatively correlated.If central vowels are in the initial position of words,the correlation is a little bit complicated./?:/ is acquired well by CcELs,both in the aspect of perception and production.Although the vowels /?/ and /?/ can be correctly perceived in most times,their production by CcELs needs to be strengthened;when central vowels are in the middle of words,for /?/ and /?:/,the correlation between perception and production is positive,but for the vowel /?/,the correlation is negative;for central vowels that lie at the end of words,the correlation between the perception and production of vowels /?:/ and /?/ is negative.Language Transfer Theory and Speech Learning Model can serve as foundation for interpreting the deviations by CcELs in the perception and production experiments.Corresponding Chinese vowels and vowels of similar tongue positions in English may lead to perception deviations of English front and central vowels.In addition,perception deviations of the middle /?/ are influenced by many factors,including interference of its corresponding tense vowel /?:/,the close sound /?/,and the disyllabic structure.For the production of English front and central vowels,it is influenced by similar vowels in Chinese.Changchun Dialect can bring about the deviations.The deviation of the vowel /?:/ is caused by the interference of the vowel er[?r] produced in Changchun Dialect.Based on the results of this study,English teaching and learning should pay more attention to the following two points: the tongue positions of English front and central vowels and the training of distinguishing adjacent vowels;the differences between English vowels and Chinese vowels and the impact of mother tongue transfer on the acquisition of English front and central vowels.