Effects of visual cues and phonetic contexts in perception of non‐native contrasts by Cantonese learners of english.

Abstract

Visual articulatory information, in addition to audio features, is integrated in L1 and L2 speech perception automatically and unconsciously [McGurk and MacDonald (1976); Rosenblum et al. (1997); Hardison (2003); Hazan et al. (2005)]. Previous literature on consonant perception has reported that visual aid is most significant with places of articulation, and that with manners, except with /r/ and /l/, has received little attention due to lack of research significance. Contrary to the commonly held idea, however, that the articulation of [l] and [n] is visually similar, our examination on video recording of three native English speakers’ production of words contrasting [l] and [n] syllable initially suggests visual differences in advancement of tongue tips. This study investigates effects of such visual information in the identification of the non‐native contrast by Cantonese learners of English. Results show that the relatively more distinct visual information can only help Cantonese speakers better perceive the two sounds in certain contexts, and in others cause more confusion.