English Front Vowels Research Articles

Young Korean EFL learners’ discrimination of AI-generated English front vowels

Young Korean EFL learners’ discrimination of AI-generated English front vowels

How L1-Chinese L2-English learners perceive English front vowels: A phonological account

Second language acquisition involves readjusting features from one’s L1 onto counterparts in the L2. Learners often face difficulty during this process due to the presence of an already firmly rooted L1 grammar. Furthermore, a learner’s L1 serves to constrain sensitivity to non-native contrasts during the acquisition process. If a learner’s L2 grammar lacks the phonological feature that can differentiate a non-native contrast, then that learner may experience persistent difficulties in representing the L2 sounds as a result. Mandarin learners of English as a second language have to contend with a substantially expanded L2 vowel inventory in the early stages of acquisition, grappling with the addition of pronounced features less prevalent in their L1. In an attempt to account for front vowel acquisition difficulties and possible routes to progress for L1- Mandarin L2-English using a direct transfer approach, this work follows the Toronto School of contrastive phonology which holds that phonological representation is determined primarily through the ordering of contrastive features. We present data from recent phonetic research that catalogues Mandarin learners’ progress in incorporating English front vowels while, at the same time, examining the underlying phonological processes. This serves as the basis for a preliminary model of contrastive hierarchy in language acquisition using elements of a feature geometry paradigm. The model provides a theoretical roadmap showing that, as Mandarin learners progress and gradually incorporate English front vowels into their L2 repository, the learner’s L2 hierarchy evolves through successive stages as contrasts are perceived and categorized.

L1 category precision hypothesis in L2 production: Korean learners’ English front vowels

It has been hypothesized that learners with more precisely defined categories in their native language (L1) are better at learning nonnative sounds in a second language (L2). Some perception studies have supported this hypothesis, but not many production studies have been conducted. Our study aims to fill this gap. Focusing on front vowels in F1/F2 acoustic space, we calculated compactness scores of L1 vowels and distances between learners’ and native speakers’ productions to operationalize category precision and L2 accuracy, respectively. Then, we examined whether learners with a lower compactness score would produce L2 vowels with a closer distance. The learners’ productions were taken from a corpus containing native Korean speakers’ reading and retelling of the North Wind and the Sun in Korean and English and comparable native English speakers’ productions from ALLSSTAR corpus. Results showed that learners with lower compactness scores produced more accurate English /i/ and /ɪ/, but not for /ɛ/ or /æ/, which partially supports the hypothesis's application to L2 production. We speculate that the merger between /e/ and /æ/ in Korean, the Northern Cities Vowel Shift in English, and/or perceptual mapping between native and L2 categories are responsible for the English non-high vowel results.

The effects of phonetics training on the production and perception of rhotic vowels in American English

This talk examines how the American “r” phoneme affects the production and perception of American English front vowels in pre-rhotic positions. Rhotic vowels challenge listeners in accurately identifying the phonetic quality of vowels due to r-coloring affecting formants (Chung etal., 2021; MacAllister et al., 2017). For example, the vowel in “beer” is commonly perceived as [i] by listeners, yet can be produced as either a tense or lax high front vowel. This challenge is particularly concerning to aspiring clinicians learning phonetic transcription. This study investigates speakers’ acoustic identity of pre-rhotic high and mid front vowels, and listeners’ ability to accurately perceive pre-rhotic vowel identities. This study examines a 50-speaker sample of college-age participants separated into two groups (with and without phonetics training). All participants read a 100-word wordlist and completed a 200-word four-alternative forced-choice identification (AFCI) task. Furthermore, the AFCI task presents each word twice by either a male or a female voice. Listeners select from four options (“BEAT,” “BIT,” “BATE,” “BET”) and rate their confidence level for each choice. Preliminary data, demarcated in PRAAT, processed using FAVE-extract, and analyzed using R software, indicate the mapping between production and perception to be strongest for those with previous phonetic training.

Impact of Consistency of Input on Acquisition of English Front Vowels: An Acoustic Study

The study observes the impact of consistency of input on the acquisition of English front vowels /ɪ/, /ɪ: /, /e/, /æ/ concerning jaw opening (correlated with F1), tongue fronting (correlated with F2) and duration of vowels. This is a quasi-experimental study that has ‘pre-test-post-test control group’ framework. Three intact class groups, at middle level from a public girls school, were assigned to experimental groups and control group. Experimental group A was consistently exposed to English RP based audios/videos for sixty consecutive days. Experimental group B was inconsistently exposed to input in alternative days. Control group C was not given treatment of any kind. The target front vowels were embedded into / hvd / syllables in the carrier phrase ‘say --- please’ as a stimuli. Data comprising of thirty six hundred tokens of English front vowels were analyzed using FormantPro (Xu, 2013) software. The results show that front vowels of group A, particularly vowel sound /æ/, /ɪ:/ are considerably affected by consistent exposure to RP vowels contrary to the front vowels of group B and group C. This study recommends consistent exposure of input for effective acquisition of English phonology.

Pronunciation Errors of English Front Vowels by Yemeni EFL Learners

In the domain of English as a foreign language, many learners still face some difficulties in articulating vowel sounds of English, particularly the front ones. This study attempts to describe Yemeni EFL learners' errors while pronouncing the English front vowels. The subject of this study was the eighth-semester students studying at the English department, Faculty of Education, Mahweet branch, Sana'a University. The descriptive qualitative approach was utilized in this study. The data was collected by recording learners' pronunciation of English front vowel minimal pairs. The data was then compared with the ones produced by an English native speaker. The findings resulted were confirmed by the spectrogram technique to identify the formants of F1 and F2 made by the learners in Praat Software Device. English front vowels /i / - / I /- / Ԑ / and / ae / were the target sounds. The study's findings revealed that Yemeni EFL learners' pronunciation differs from those produced by native English speakers. It was also revealed that Yemeni EFL learners are still struggling in articulating English front vowel sounds due to the influence of the sound system of their native language that causes such pronunciation problems in the target language.

A Contrastive Study of English and Arabic Vowel Phonemes

Consequently, the present study sheds light on a very important aspect that is a contrastive analysis of segmental vowel phonemes of both L1 and L2. As one of the Problems, that is affecting the teaching/learning process of ELT. Then to clarify the different areas between the segmental vowel phonemes of Arabic and English. It also aims at making a comparative segmental analysis in the vowel phonemes of both L1 - L2, in order to shed light on the areas of difficulties. Taking into account the different forms of sounds in relation to their spellings. Also the sound systems of both languages L1 and L2. Particular the areas of common mistakes. Thus, it encourages teachers to check English pronunciation before teaching and predict problems before they happen. Also the use of advanced methods and pronunciation dictionary for (IPA). It also helps learners to master all the significant sound features and basic structural patterns. On the phonological levels, differences cause difficulties e.g. The areas of Arabic /p/ and /v/ ,and English front vowels phonemes /i:/-/i/- /e/- /æ/, central /ə:/- /ə/-/Λ/,and back/a:/-/o/-/ ﬤ:/-/u/-/u:/ phonemes in English, they do not exist in Arabic. In addition to the English vowel /e/ which doesn’t exist in Arabic. This observation can't be only linguistically, but it will also confirm by L2 learners. These theories need to be clarified in order to allow rules to be expressed. In the English language, there are 26 alphabetical letters which are totally different than their sounds. Another drawback is the alphabetical method which is intended to teach reading by means of spelling. There is no one –to- one correspondence between sounds and letters. That is to say, each different sound cannot be represented by the same letter. There are also words which are spelt differently but sound the same. Therefore, the present study concentrates on the difficulties that Learners and beginners face in using English segmental vowel phonemes. It also tries to get new methods and new ideas. This study is based on the practical experience of the writer, being specialized in English phonology, a lecturer and an author of a phonetics textbook for beginner learners who learn English as a foreign language. And as a supervisor who follows undergraduate students in the field of experience. That is, in order to find out possible remedial solutions, better suggestion and recommendations. Then follows a descriptive method to achieve this purpose. With the sample of twenty student girls. As a case study of undergraduate trainees of Majmaah Universitiy in the training field, to collect data from the subjects’ real environment during talks, speeches, presentations and teaching in the Field Experience. The results were recorded to be analyzed. In particular, the areas of English vowels and diphthongs that are totally different than in Arabic.

SOUND SYMBOLISM OF FRONT VOWELS IN ENGLISH ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS

This is a qualitative research that focuses on the meaning represented in the phoneme contained in English onomatopoeic words. Onomatopoeia is word that imitates the sounds of human, animal, things, actions, and nature in the world. Onomatopoeia exists in many reading materials such as comics, fables, tales and poetry. This research focuses on the onomatopoeic words which are contained in Oxford English Dictionary for the dictionary is regularly updated. Out of two kinds of phoneme, which are consonants and vowels, this research limits the investigation for only English front vowels. Based on the manner of articulation, English front vowels are divided into front high tense unrounded vowel /i/, front high lax unrounded vowel /ɪ/, front mid tense unrounded vowel /e/, front mid lax unrounded vowel /ɛ/, and front low lax unrounded vowel /ӕ/. This approach used in this research is called sound symbolism which is a study of relation between sound and meaning. This research applies low-level properties, a mechanism in sound symbolism that is associating the sound to the meaning based on the shared perceptual feature in both phoneme and associated stimuli. The mechanism is used as the method of the research for the researcher explores the characteristics of front vowels contained in English onomatopoeic words that are used to represent the sounds produced by human, animals, natures, machines, and other things. Based on the investigation, the result indicates that the higher vowels the more diminutive meaning it indicates, while the lower vowels the more augmentative meaning it indicates.

Covert contrasts in the acquisition of English high front vowels by native speakers of Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to report results of an investigation into the production of a covert contrast by native speakers of Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in the acquisition of the English distinction between the high front vowels /i/ and /ɪ/. A covert contrast is a statistically reliable acoustic distinction made by a language learner between target-language phonemes that is nevertheless not perceived by native speakers of the target language. We gathered data on both the production and perception of this vowel contrast from a total of 36 second-language learners from the three native-language backgrounds, along with data from an additional 22 native-speaker controls. The findings are that about two-thirds of our second-language learners produced a covert contrast between the targeted vowel phonemes. In light of the results from research on child language acquisition and disordered speech, our data suggest that a covert contrast is not limited to the domain of the acquisition of a first language, either by normally developing children or by those with speech disorders.

A Study of Effects of Fluency in Read Speech on the Accuracy of English Front Vowels.

A Study of Effects of Fluency in Read Speech on the Accuracy of English Front Vowels.

A Case Study on American English Front Vowel Quality and How Native Language Transfer Could Affect Pronunciation

Daily communication shows that some English front vowels are distinguishably produced by American English speakers and Mandarin speakers. Applying acoustic research method, this paper conducts a case study involving three native English speakers and three Mandarin speakers. The comparison is made between these two groups of speakers on the mean of F1 and F2 of front vowels /iː/, /ɪ/, /eɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/. Based on the measurement of vowel quality, this research also explores that in what ways or to what degree native language transfer could affect the pronunciation.

English listeners’ judgments of Japanese-accented English vowel productions: Relation to acoustic and kinematic characteristics

The present study investigates how monolingual English listeners categorize foreign (Japanese) productions of English tense and lax vowels with the aim of relating vowel identification to the acoustic and kinematic vowel space. American English front vowels (/i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, and /ae/) were elicited in /hVd/ context from ten Japanese adults who learned English as a second language (ESL). Listeners categorized these vowel productions in a six-alternative, forced-choice paradigm (including the choice /ʌ/). Vowels produced by two native English speakers were included in the perceptual task for comparison. Preliminary results showed higher perceptual accuracy for tense vowels than for lax vowels. As expected, vowels from English talkers were more accurately identified than those from Japanese ESL speakers. To determine whether listeners’ perceptual categorization corresponded with acoustic and kinematic patterns, perceptual data for contrasting vowel categories were compared with measured differences in form...

A Phonetic Study of English Front Vowels Produced by Korean Learners of English

This study investigates how Korean learners of English (KLE) produce English front vowels. The production of eight female KLE was analyzed using Praat and VoiceSauce and was then compared with that of native English speakers. An acoustical analysis of English vowels reveals three findings. First, KLE produced English front vowels differently from native English speakers in the rate of vowel duration according to both the number of syllables and the voicing of the following consonant. Second, KEL neither differentiated between /i/ and /ɪ/, nor /ɛ/ and /æ/. Third, vowel shortening before a voiceless stop in Korean influences the higher rate of vowel shortening before a voiceless stop in English.

Articulation of vowel height in Taiwanese Vowels: An EMA study

Whalen et al.’s (2010) ultrasound study has suggested that constriction degree “may be the best descriptor for height” in American English front vowels {i, ɪ, e, ɛ}. The present study took a further step, investigating the case of height and backness distinction in Taiwanese front and back vowels. Stimuli consisted in /CV/ sequences with V corresponding to one of the six vowels {i, e, a, ɔ, ɣ, u} (Southern variety). Five adult speakers were asked to repeat each sequence six times in random order. The articulatory data were collected using the Carstens AG500 EMA system. Our results show that vowel height and backness in Taiwanese vowels can be reliably differentiated as follows: (1) for front and central vowels, height is primarily distinguished by Tongue Body Constriction Degree (TBCD) (i>e>a) (less robustly by Tongue Tip Constriction Degree), whereas height distinction of back vowels is made in Tongue Dorsum Constriction Degree (TDCD) (u>ɣ>ɔ), (2) backness can be distinguished by Tongue Tip and Tongue Body Constriction Location. Therefore, Whalen et al.’s (2010) claim can be extended to back vowels as well (at least in Taiwanese). Furthermore, our results are compatible with Ladefoged’s (2001) “holistic” view of vowel height as long as his “highest point of the tongue” can be “locally” interpreted: TBCD for height of front and central vowels and TDCD for back vowels. In sum, the present study suggests that distinction in vowel height be relativized to different gestural constriction degree.

Amount of exposure and its effect on perception of second language front vowels in English

Experience with a second language (L2) has been shown to positively affect learners’ perception of L2 sounds. However, few studies have focused on how the amount of L2 exposure in foreign language classrooms impacts perception of L2 sounds during the incipient stages of language learning in school-age children. To determine what effect, if any, the amount of L2 exposure has on perception, 64 students from a Spanish-English bilingual elementary school and 60 students from two non-bilingual elementary schools participated in an AX Categorical Discrimination task, which contained tokens of five English front vowels: /i ɪ e ɛ æ/. Results show that students from the bilingual school earned perception scores significantly higher than those earned by the students from the non-bilingual school (p = 0.002). However, an ANOVA found there to be no significant simple main effect for grade or significant correlation between grade level and school type. The bilingual school students perceived all within-category word pairings (e.g., bat-bat) significantly more accurately than the non-bilingual school students suggesting that increased, early exposure to an L2 may heighten one’s ability to disregard irrelevant, interpersonal phonetic differences and lead to a within-category perceptual advantage over those with less L2 exposure early on.

Relative distances among English front vowels produced by Korean and American speakers

This study examined the relative distances among English front vowels in a message produced by 47 Korean and American speakers from an internet speech archive in order to provide better pronunciation skills for Korean English learners. The Euclidean distances in the vowel space of F1 and F2 were measured among the front vowel pairs. The first vowel pair [i-ɛ] was set as the reference from which the relative distances of the other two vowel pairs were measured in percent in order to compare the vowel sounds among speakers of different vocal tract lengths. Results show that F1 values of the front vowels produced by the Korean and American speakers increased from the high front vowel to the low front vowel with differences among the groups. The Korean speakers generally produced the front vowels with smaller jaw openings than the American speakers did. Second, the relative distance of the high front vowel pair [i-ɪ] showed a significant difference between the Korean and American speakers while that of the low front vowel pair [ɛ-æ] showed a non-significant difference. Finally, the Korean speakers in the higher proficiency level produced the front vowels with higher F1 values than those in the lower proficiency level.

Formant trajectory analysis using dynamic time warping: Preliminary results

In English, there are at least two mechanisms that affect vowel duration—vowel identity and postvocalic consonant voicing. Previous studies have shown that these two mechanisms have independent effects on vowel duration (Port 1981, Todt 2010). This study presents preliminary results on the use of dynamic time warping to distinguish between the effects of vowel identity and postvocalic consonant voicing on the formant trajectories of English front vowels. Using PraatR (Albin 2014), formant trajectories are extracted from sound files in Praat and imported into R, where the dynamic time warping analysis is conducted using the dtw package (Giorgino 2009). Albin, A. L. (2014). PraatR: An architecture for controlling the phonetics software “Praat” with the R programming language. JASA 135, 2198. Giorgino T. (2009). “Computing and Visualizing Dynamic Time Warping Alignments in R: The dtw Package,”J. Stat. Software, 31(7), pp. 1–24. Port, R. F. (1981). Linguistic timing factors in combination. JASA 69(1), 262–274. R Core Team (2014). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Todt, K. R. (2010). The production of English front vowels by Spanish speakers: A study of vowel duration based on vowel tenseness and consonant voicing, JASA 128, 2489.

Perception and Production of Five English Front Vowels by College Students

This study was to explore whether college students could perceive and produce five English front vowels well or not. It also examined the relationship between English speaking and listening. To be more specific, the study attempted to probe which vowels that learners could be confused easily in speaking and listening. The results revealed that participants perceived the best in /i/-/I/ pair and /e/-/æ/ pair but the worst in /e/-/?/ pair, /?/-/æ/ pair and among /e/-/?/-/æ/ pair. They produced the best in the vowels of /I/ and /?/ but the worst in the vowels of /i/, /e/ and /æ/. Moreover, there was a strong and positive correlation between production and perception of English vowels by college students.

Imitation of English vowel duration upon exposure to native and non-native speech

AbstractThe study reproduces pilot work concerned with the imitation of English vowel duration by Polish learners (Zając 2013). Its aim was to expand on the findings of the previous study, i.e. determine if the magnitude of imitation may depend on the native/non-native status of the model talker and investigate whether the provision of explicit instructions to imitate at the beginning of the experiment affects convergence strategies of the participants. The dependent variable was the duration of three English front vowels analysed in shortening and lengthening contexts. The stimuli included pre-recorded English word pairs pronounced by a native and a non-native model talker. The experimental procedure consisted of three tasks: (1) reading the English word pairs displayed sequentially on a computer screen (baseline condition), producing the English words after exposure to (2) the native model talker’s voice and (3) the non-native model talker’s voice (shadowing conditions). The results show that the magnitude of imitation in the pronunciation of L2 learners may differ as a function of the model talker (native vs. non-native). The provision of explicit instructions to imitate at the beginning of the experimental procedure was found not to have a significant impact on the convergence strategies of the subjects.

Variability in English vowels is comparable in articulation and acoustics.

The nature of the links between speech production and perception has been the subject of longstanding debate. The present study investigated the articulatory parameter of tongue height and the acoustic F1-F0 difference for the phonological distinction of vowel height in American English front vowels. Multiple repetitions of /i, ɪ, e, ε, æ/ in [(h)Vd] sequences were recorded in seven adult speakers. Articulatory (ultrasound) and acoustic data were collected simultaneously to provide a direct comparison of variability in vowel production in both domains. Results showed idiosyncratic patterns of articulation for contrasting the three front vowel pairs /i-ɪ/, /e-ε/ and /ε-æ/ across subjects, with the degree of variability in vowel articulation comparable to that observed in the acoustics for all seven participants. However, contrary to what was expected, some speakers showed reversals for tongue height for /ɪ/-/e/ that was also reflected in acoustics with F1 higher for /ɪ/ than for /e/. The data suggest the phonological distinction of height is conveyed via speaker-specific articulatory-acoustic patterns that do not strictly match features descriptions. However, the acoustic signal is faithful to the articulatory configuration that generated it, carrying the crucial information for perceptual contrast.