The identification and discrimination of English vowels produced by native Mandarin speakers

Abstract

Individuals who speak an Asian language as their first language (L1) are reported to show phonetic inaccuracies in their production of English spoken as a second language (L2) [Flege, 1989]. Phonetic inaccuracies are assumed to arise from the phonetic differences between the two languages, whereby L1 competes with L2 production [Flege et al., 1997]. A small database is currently available in regarding the influence of Mandarin on the production of American English vowels. The present investigation is to perform a detailed acoustic and perceptual evaluation of American English tense–lax vowel pairs produced by 40 native Mandarin speakers. The Mandarin language does not contain lax vowels, therefore, examining the production of American English tense–lax pairs will provide a critical assessment of a native Mandarin-speaking individual’s ability to differentially produce English vowels. The first hypothesis to be tested will be that Mandarin speakers will demonstrate indistinctive acoustic tense–lax vowel differentiation in their English productions. The second hypothesis to be tested will be that Mandarin speakers will be judged perceptually as less successful in differentially producing the adjacent tense–lax English vowel pairs as compared to the American speakers. The phonetic influences of L1 (Mandarin) on L2 (English) will be discussed.