The discrimination and the production of English vowels by bilingual Spanish/English speakers

Abstract

The discrimination of English vowels in real and novel words by 40 bilingual Spanish/English participants was examined. Their discrimination was compared with that of 40 native monolingual English participants. Participants were 23–36 years of age (mean 25.3; median 25.0). Stimuli were presented within triads in an ABX paradigm. This categorial discrimination paradigm was selected to avoid labeling, allowing participants to indicate categories to which stimuli belonged. Bilingual participants’ productions of vowels in real words used in the discrimination task were judged by two independent listeners. The goal was to determine the degree of correlation between discrimination and production. Vowels were studied as these segments present second language learners with more difficulty than consonants. Discrimination difficulty was significantly greater for bilingual participants than for native English participants for vowel contrasts and novel words. Significant errors also appeared in the bilingual participants’ production of certain vowels. English vowels absent from Spanish presented the greatest difficulty, while vowels similar to those in Spanish presented the least difficulty. Earlier age of acquisition, absence of communication problems, and greater percentage of time devoted to communication in English contributed to greater accuracy in discrimination and production. [Work supported by PSC-CUNY.]