The production of English monophthong vowels by Iranian EFL learners

Abstract

This paper examines the production of English monophthong vowels by a group of Iranian learners of English based on an instrumental analysis of the vowels. Data in two speaking contexts were elicited from a group of learners between the ages of 16 and 17. To examine vowel quality, the first and second formant frequencies of the vowels were measured. These values and the duration of the vowels were compared to investigate the extent to which vowel contrast was maintained. The findings suggest that the learners tend not to contrast vowels (in terms of quality) when there is only one category of a similar vowel in Persian (e.g. English /i:/–/ɪ/ and /ʊ/–/u:/) whereas quality rather than length contrast is maintained for /e/–/ae/, both of which occur in Persian.