Phonological Constraints on the Acquisition of Mid Vowels in English,

Mandarin, and Southern Min for College Students in Taiwan

Advisor: Dr. Raung-fu Chung

Graduate: Li-Wen Huang

1. Introduction

1.1 Background and Motivation1.2 Purposes of the Study1.3 Research Questions

There is no [, , ] in Mandarin Chinese or other Chinese languages spoken in Taiwan.

There is no [e] ([ej] in Southern Min and Hakka, although there are [ej] and [ow] in Mandarin Chinese.

It is, therefore, interesting that whether Taiwanese students are able to perceive as well as produce the English [ej] (as in say] and [ow] (as in so).

Background and Motivation

Focus on mid vowels /e/ and /o/. Production:

understanding how the subjects pronounce the mid vowels, and how they are affected by their 1st and 2nd language. Perception:

know if they can tell the differences between the mid vowels /e/, //, //, and /o/, //

Purpose of the Study

(1) Can students in Taiwan identify the differences between the five mid vowels /e/, //, //, /o/, and // in English, Mandarin and Southern Min?

(2) What are the roles of the native language in the acquisition of English as a 3rd language?

(3) What are the differences between English vowel /e/, //, and//, Mandarin vowel /ei/( ㄟ ) and /e/( ㄝ ), and SM vowel /e/? On the contrary, what are the differences between English vowel /o/ and //, Mandarin vowel /ou/( ㄡ ) and /o/( ㄛ ), and SM vowel /o/?

(4) Which of the mother languages influences English more, Mandarin or SM?

Research Questions

2. Literature Review

2.1 Acoustic Analysis of Vowels2.2 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)

後面這幾章三張圖都換過，美國英語用Hillerbrand et al. （我論文的 (4))

國語用 (9) 閩南語用 (10) 這樣才能顯現你有看書

Acoustic Analysis of Vowels

2. Mandarin Vowel System 9 monophthongs : / i( ㄧ ), u( ㄨ ), y( ㄩ ), a( ㄚ ), ( ㄛ ), ( ㄜ ),

e( ㄝ ),( ㄦ ), / Diphthongs: (Chung, 2006) Falling: (vowel+glide) /ei/ and /ou/ ( ㄟ ) ( ㄡ ) Raising: (glide+vowel) /ie/ and /uo/ ( ㄧㄝ ) ( ㄨㄛ )

Acoustic Analysis of Vowels

3. Southern Min Vowel Spoken by about 73% of the populations in

Taiwan in 2009 6 monothphongs: /I, e, , , o, a/

Acoustic Analysis of Vowels

Lado (1957) – By systematically comparing a language and culture

to be learned with the students’ native language and culture one can predict and describe in which areas language learners will have difficulties.

Chung (1996)- Taiwanese studetns are usually confused in

pronouncing English bought [bt] and boat [bot] Another example between Mandarin and Southern Min

is 烈 [lie] and 累 [lei] which people will pronounce as [le].

CAH: Contrastive analysis Hypothesis

Tai (2000)- The subjects cannot contrast the five pairs of

sounds: /s, /, /i, /, /e, /, /o, / and /u, /. Tseng (2011)-

More than half of the 102 subjects cannot do well on differentiating the target vowels /e/, //, and //

Wang (2012)- English vowels /o/, /u/, and /a/ are influenced by the

subjects’ Mandarin.

CAH: Contrastive analysis Hypothesis

3. Methodology

3.1 Participants3.2 Instruments3.3 Procedures

28 female participants

Second grade of a junior college in Chiayi

Learned English for at least nine years

L1: SM L2: Mandarin

Participants

(1) A questionnaire: For the subjects’ family background and learning experience

(2) Production experiment: Three reading lists in English, Mandarin, and

Southern Min(3) Perception experiment:

Listening task for distinguishing the differences between the mid vowels in the three languages

Instruments for Data Collecting

(4) Recording Materials: - a notebook computer - a head-microphone with a speaker -a recording shelter

- Praat SoundRecorder

Instruments for Data Collection

(1) Praat: To adopt the formants of the vowels

(2) Micro Office Excel: To compare the three groups of vowels and transformed the numbers into vowel charts.

Instruments for Data analysis

ProceduresDesign the questionnaire and the reading and listening lists

Analyze the data

Recruit subjects

Use Praat to record the sound files

Discuss the analyzed results

Administer the listening task

Subjects fill in the questionnaire

4. Results and Discussion

4.1 Introduction4.2 The Production Experiment

4.3 The perception Experiment 4.3.1 The First Part of the Perception Experiment4.3.2 The Second Part of the Perception Experiment

The F1 and F2 of /e/, /D/, /W/ were produced similarly.

Only the F2 of /e/ was higher. So the tongue body was more front.

Vowel Movements English /e, D, W/

The F1 of SM /e/ was lower while the F2 was almost the same as English but went down at last.

SM /e/ was articulated higher but almost the same backness with English /e, D, W/

Vowel MovementsEnglish /e, D, W/ & SM /e/

The F1 of Mandarin /ei/ was lower and F2 was higher.

Mandarin /ei/ was articulated higher and more frontward.

Vowel Movements English /e, D, W/ & Mandarin /ei/( ㄟ )

The F1 of /o/ and /C/ were very alike.

The F2 of /o/ was higher at first and lower at the end.

However, the shape of /o/ and /C/ in F1 and F2 were very similar.

Vowel MovementsEnglish /o, C/

The F1 of SM /o/ was higher than English. But the F2 was almost at the same height.

However, the latter half of SM /o/ was straight in F1 and F2 which is different from English /o/ and /C/.

Vowel MovementsEnglish /o, C/ & SM /o/

The shape was like English /o/ and /C/ more than SM /o/. But the F1 and F2 were both higher than English.

Mandarin /ou/ was articulated lower and more front.

Vowel Movements English /o, C/ & Mandarin /ou/( ㄡ )

Because the diphthongs contain two vowels.

To compare with mophthongs, the vowels were cut into two parts from point 6 based on the vowel movements.

Vowel Movements with Diphthongs

Only English /(i)e/ was more similar to Mandarin /ei/.

English /e/, /D/, /W/ were all lower than the L1 and L2.

English /o/, /C/ were more similar to Mandarin /ou/.

Mean Vowel Chart Subjects

English /e/, /D/, /W/ were closer to native speakers’ lax vowel /D/ and /W/.

Mandarin /ei/ was closer to the norm’s /W/.

Most of the mid-front vowels produced by Taiwanese students were closer to native speaker’s short vowels /D/ and /W/.

English /o/ and /C/ were far from the norm’s /o/ and /C/.

Mean Vowel Chart Subjects V.S. Norm-Hillenbran et.al. (1995)

The shapes of the vowels for NS were obviously different respectively.

The F1 and F2 of English /e/ was the widest, followed by /D/ and then /W/.

The F1 and F2 of English /o/ was wider than /C/.

Vowel Movements A Native Speaker (NS)

The subjects’ English mid-front vowels were closer to NS’s lax vowel /D/ and then /W/.

Mid-back vowels were closer to NS’s tense vowel /o/.

Mean Vowel Chart Subjects V.S. NS

Mandarin /ei/( ㄟ ) was the closest to English /e/, /D/, /W/ in F1 and /e/ in F2.

SM /e/ was the closest to Enlgish /D/, /W/ in F2.

Rank of Similarities/e/, /D/, /W/

Mandarin /ou/( ㄡ ) was the closest to English /o/, /C/ in F1.

SM /o/ was the closest to English /o/, /C/ in F2.

Rank of Similarities/o/, /C/

The distance of English tense /e/ was near Mandarin /ei/.

English lax /D/, /W/ were near SM /e/.

English tense /o/ was near SM /o/.

English lax /C/ was near Mandarin /ou/

Rank of Similarities

English /e/, /D/, /o/, /C/ can be distinguished by the subjects.

Only /W/ confused with English /e/ was the most difficult sound for the students.

Perception Rate of Mid Vowels

The subjects thought English /D/, /W/, /o/, /C/ sounded like Mandarin.

49.4% of the subjects thought English /e/ sounded like SM.

Comparison with L1 and L2

5. Conclusion

In the perception experiment, most of the subjects can tell the differences apart from English vowels /e/, /D/, /o/, and /C/.

/W/ is the most difficult to perceive .

RQ1: Can the subjects identify the differences between the five mid vowels

/e/, //, //, /o/, and // in English, Mandarin and Southern Min?

Mandarin /ei/ and SM /e/ are almost at the same height.

Mandarin /ei/ and /e/ are placed more front than the other two languages.

RQ2:What are the roles of the native language in the acquisition of English as a

3rd language?

The places of articulation of English mid-front vowels are all lower than those of Mandarin and SM.

English /W/ is the lowest and the most back whereas Mandarin /e/ is the most front and the highest.

Mandarin /ei/ and SM /e/ are almost at the same height.

RQ3-1: What are the differences between English vowel /e/, //, and//, Mandarin

vowel /ei/( ㄟ ) and /e/( ㄝ ), and SM vowel /e/?

With regard to the places of articulation of mid-back vowels, SM /o/ is the lowest.

Mandarin /o/ is the highest and the most back and Mandarin /ou/ is the most front of the three languages.

English /o/ and /C/ are almost at the same place, located in back of Mandarin /ou/ but in front of Mandarin /o/.

RQ3-2: what are the differences between English vowel /o/ and //, Mandarin vowel /ou/( ㄡ ) and /o/( ㄛ ), and SM vowel /o/?

English /e/→Mandarin /ei/ English /D/ and /W/ →SM /e/

(Due to the differences of the vowel systems in Mandarin and SM. )

English /o/ →SM /o/ English /C/ →Mandarin /ou/

(Due to the language transfer of SM to Mandarin.)

RQ4: Which of the mother languages influences English more, Mandarin or SM?

With the ability to tell the differences between each vowel does not mean that the students have the ability to pronounce the sounds correctly. Hence, language instructors may focus on the speaking skill instead of listening only.

The learners were unable to distinguish the differences between diphthongs /ei, ou/ and monophthongs /D, W, C/ because of the language transfer of L1 to L2. Thus, the instructors should give learners the idea of producing the long vowels and the short vowels before teaching these vowels in English.

Pedagogical Implications

Recruit more subjects including females and males so that researchers can see the differences between genders.

Other vowels and consonants are suggested to be added in further researches.

More details about open and closed syllables are necessary for further study.

More researches can be conducted with tongue rounded to see more details about English /o/ and /C/.

Limitation and Suggestions Further Study for Study

Thanks for Your Attention!!