English Minimal Pairs Research Articles

Enhancement of laryngeal contrasts in non-native English clear speech: a comparison between L2-immersed sequential bilinguals and L1-immersed speakers.

Clear speech, a speaking style used to mitigate communicative circumstances affecting the transmission or decoding of speech signal, often involves the enhancement of language-specific phonological contrasts, including laryngeal contrasts. This study investigates the role of language dominance in the implementation of language-specific laryngeal contrasts in L2 clear speech. Two groups of Korean-English speakers (L1 Korean) were tested: a relatively less Korean-dominant L2-immersed group of sequential bilinguals (N = 30) and a strongly Korean-dominant L1-immersed group (N = 30), with dominance assessed based on the results of the Bilingual Language Profile. Participants read a set of English minimal pairs differing in the voicing of word-initial stops (e.g., tab vs. dab), and their acoustic enhancement strategies were compared with those of native English speakers (N = 20). As correlates of the English laryngeal contrast, voice onset time (VOT) and onset f0 were measured. Results showed that both bilingual groups enhanced English laryngeal contrast in clear speech via voiceless VOT lengthening, similarly to native English speakers, but to a smaller extent than native speakers. Both bilingual groups also implemented a greater degree of onset f0 difference between voiced and voiced English stops than native English speakers did, although no enhancement of this parameter was observed in their clear speech. Surprisingly, no significant differences were found between L2- and L1-immersed speakers, suggesting a lack of language immersion effect on the acoustic enhancement strategies in L2 clear speech. We discuss possible explanations for this finding and propose directions for future research.

Study of Listening Discrimination in Korean University Students

A listening experiment was conducted with 68 students of Chung Ang University in Seoul, South Korea. Most of the students were from the Department of English Education. This experiment was performed in a classroom with different classes of students. The goal of the experiment was to determine how well Korean students could discriminate the sounds of five English minimal pairs. The five minimal pairs tested were the following: light/right, sad/said, suffer/supper, pull/pool, and it/eat. Students had to choose the minimal pair which they heard and circle it on their piece of paper. Each minimal pair was listed five times for a total of 25 utterances. The author read the words on the list from start to finish a total of two times to ensure that students heard each word clearly.

Perception and Production of English Consonants by Senior High School Students

For Chinese students coming from different areas, they often encounter different English learning challenges in speaking and listening due to the influence from hometown accents. In comparison with Mandarin, the learners from Nanchang struggle with the pronunciation of /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/ sounds. Therefore, it is explored in this study whether Nanchang students face the same difficulties in listening and speaking when it comes to /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/. A total of 30 Nanchang senior three high school students participated in the perceiving and producing tests (comparing the English consonant minimal pairs: /ɹ/ and /l/, /n/ and /ŋ/), and they were invited to take interview about their personal attitudes and experiences about the learning of English consonants. It was revealed that there was no significant difference between producing and perceiving /ɹ/ and /l/, despite a significant difference in the performance on /n/-/ŋ/. Moreover, the perception of students about the English consonants shows a positive correlation with the production of the consonants. According to the interview, the lack of standard English learning resources was a major barrier to English study for students. The pedagogical implication is that the teachers in Nanchang area were suggested to provide pre-class speaking training, investigate the difficulty in English pronunciations for students, and teach pronunciation by playing the standard English video, which would be beneficial for senior high school EFL learners to improve the perception and production of English consonants.

Interlingual Errors in Indonesian EFL learners' Pronunciation: From Minimal Pairs to Speaking Ability

The majority of previous research observed phonemes produced individually to examine errors. As a result, based on the concept of minimum pairings, this study offered a novel way of assessing interlingual errors based on the concept of minimal pairings. This study examines the interlingual errors in consonant minimal pairs to see the correlation between the errors and the speaking ability that happened to high school students. There are several consonants which are being used such as /v/, /θ̠/, /ð̠/, /ʃ/, /t̠ʃ/, /ʤ/, /f/, /t/, /d/, /z/, and /s/ as indicators to find the interlingual errors. This study is descriptive qualitative research that examines the interlingual errors produced by high school students when utilizing English minimal pairs of consonants. All of the consonants acted as the test tool for the 19 selected students in the form of 10 minimal pairs. The research found that students did have difficulties when they were pronouncing the consonant minimal pairs such as /d/ & /ð/, /f/ & /v/, and /ʃ/ & /t̠ʃ/. Thus, the difficulties that occurred in the students’ pronunciation also generate speaking ability between students based on the interlingual errors. The findings showed that high school students mostly struggled with their pronunciation when uttering consonants that do not exist in the Indonesian language. In conclusion, interlingual errors play an important role as a method in teaching a foreign language to see the consonant errors happen in high school students when pronouncing the English language.

Difficulties encountered by Albanian students while pronouncing English minimal pairs

Many foreign language learners encounter difficulties in pronouncing English language sounds, which potentially leads to misunderstanding in oral communication. Sometimes, the Albanian learners find pronunciation quite tricky when learning English language because they have to replicate lots of new strange sounds that are completely unknown to them. The present paper tackles the difficulties of producing English sounds with focus on minimal pairs, which is not an easy task, especially when the learners are not exposed to the native speakers in their environment. This research focuses on pronunciation errors with the minimal pairs committed by students of English language who study at the University of Vlora in Albania. As an experienced teacher of English Language in Albania, I have had the opportunity to observe the difficulties the Albanian speaking learners usually face in learning English pronunciation and what I have concluded is that Minimal pairs bear great benefits in pronunciation teaching and learning. There were 20 students who participated in this research and all of them had been studying English Phonology for a semester at the university. We selected six minimal pairs [i] vs. [i:], [e] vs. [ꬱ], [u] vs. [u:], [ꓥ] vs. [a:], [ͻ] vs. [ͻ:], [w] vs. [v] and prepared a test for the students. The data were collected and the findings revealed the difficulties the students faced these six minimal pairs.

Korean EFL Learners’ Identification of English Consonant Contrasts in Word-final Position

The study investigated whether Korean EFL learners’ identification of English consonant contrasts in word-final position was affected by the types of contrasting consonants and by vowel contexts. The study also examined whether Korean EFL learners’ identification accuracy had a correlation with their English listening comprehension test scores. To that end, 123 Korean high school students completed an English consonant identification task with English nonce words. The nonce word stimuli consisted of 8 types of English consonant minimal pairs (/p-f/, /b-v/, /t-ɵ/, /d-ð/, /s-ʧ/, /z-ʤ/, /s-ɵ/, /z-ð/) combined with one of three vowels (/i, a, u/). The results showed that both the types of contrasting consonants and vowel contexts had a great impact on Korean high school students’ identification of English consonant contrasts in word-final position. Korean high school students’ ability to identify English consonant contrasts was also correlated with their English listening comprehension test scores. Based on the findings of the study, some implications for the teaching and learning of English consonant contrasts for Korean EFL learners were drawn. (Korea University)

The role of vowel length and glottalization in German learners’ perception of the English coda stop voicing contrast

In German, the voicing contrast in word-final stops is neutralized towards the voiceless sound. We tested how German learners of English use in perception two phonetic cues to this contrast in English: the duration of the vowel preceding the stop and the partial glottalization of this vowel. While a longer vowel cues the voiced sound of the contrast, glottalization enhances the voiceless sound, which should be ‘easy’ for learners as word-finally it is the default in German. We asked whether cueing the ‘easy’ sound would nevertheless affect learners’ word identification. Learners categorized two English minimal pairs along vowel duration continua with either a fully modal vowel or the last 25% of the vowel glottalized. Learners gave more voiced-stop responses as vowel duration increased. They also used glottalization by giving fewer voiced-stop responses for the glottalized continua. A second experiment demonstrated that the glottalization was not merely perceived as a change in the vowel+closure duration ratio. When the glottalized portion of the vowels was set to silence learners gave even fewer voiced-stop responses than in the glottalized condition. Results suggest that learners can use a phonetic cue to a second language sound contrast even if it enhances the familiar ‘easy’ sound.

The acquisition of English stress by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals: The role of dominant language

This study systematically investigates the cross-linguistic influence of the acquisition of English lexical stress by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals. Experiment 1 examined the Kazakh accent/stress pattern. Even though there is an argument about Kazakh stress, we used near minimal pairs in Kazakh such as balaDAR “children” vs. balaDAY “like a child, childish.” By measuring duration, intensity, and pitch on 20 Kazakh-Russian bilinguals with strong Kazakh language level, we compared the stressed syllable versus unstressed syllables in the near minimal pairs and found duration as a stronger cue for the stress/accent in the syllables. In experiment 2 we investigated the roles of Russian as the dominant language in cross-linguistic influences. We used ten minimal pairs in Russian produced by 20 Russian bilinguals who claimed their native language is Russian. The results showed Kazakh-Russian bilinguals produced Russian stress using duration. Experiment 3 focuses on the acquisition of stress pattern in English by Kazakh-Russian bilinguals. We recruited 40 participants with (IELTS= 7.0) producing 10 English minimal pairs in three conditions. We found that duration and intensity are stronger cues than F0. None of the group used F0 as a stress cue in English lexical stress. The result will be discussed regarding dominant Russian language.

Developing a Pronunciation Computer Program for the Acquisition of English Phonemes and Word Stress

This study devised a pronunciation computer program to examine whether mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) could facilitate college students’ acquisition of English phonemes and word stress. Thirty-eight participants enrolled in the remedial English class offered at the language center of a national technological university in central Taiwan. Before the class, they were asked to read a word list. In the following six weeks, they were taught to distinguish and articulate English phonemes and to predict word stress locations using the designed computer program. They were also instructed to review the learning materials using the smart-phone version of the devised program. After the teaching session, each participant was asked again to read the same word list and fill out an assessment questionnaire. The sound analyses show that their readings of English minimal pairs and word stress placement were more accurate than their performances before the instruction. Their responses to the questionnaire indicate that both the given instruction and the designed computer program were satisfactory. In the open-ended questions, some of them said that they have built up a better understanding of phonemes and word stress, and that they would try to predict polysyllabic word stress when reading English articles. The present findings can be further applied to research on MALL-based English pronunciation acquisition.

Is it blow or below? Non-native listeners' perception of words that contrast in syllable count

Non-native speakers often have difficulty accurately producing and perceiving the syllable structure of a second language. For example, Japanese learners of English often insert epenthetic vowels when producing English words, e.g., stress produced as /sutoresu/. Similarly, when asked to count syllables in spoken English words, they frequently overestimate the number of syllables, suggesting that they tend to perceptually insert epenthetic vowels between adjacent consonants. These tendencies suggest the possibility that learners may have difficulty distinguishing between English words that contrast in syllable count, i.e., words that differ in the presence/absence of a vowel, e.g., blow-below, sport-support. Furthermore, if listeners perceptually insert epenthetic vowels, then they should misperceive blow as below more often than below as blow. To test these predictions, Japanese listeners participated in a 2AFC identification task, using 78 English minimal pairs contrasting in syllable count such as blow-below. Results showed that Japanese listeners indeed had difficulty with this task. However, misidentification of blow-type words as below was less frequent than misidentification of below-type words as blow, contrary to predictions based on perceptual epenthesis. These results suggest that simple comparison of syllable structure between languages may not suffice to predict difficulties in L2 speech perception. [Work supported by JSPS.]

음소인지에 관한 시각적 연구

본 연구는 최소짝을 이용하여 한국인 피 실험자들의 영어자모음과 반모음의 음소구별능력을 살펴본 실험적 연구이다. 음소구별능력을 알아보는 실험의 방법으로는 청해시험을 활용하였으며, 거기에서 얻어진 결과를 통해 다음의 세 가지를 확인할 수 있었다. 첫째, 피 실험자들이 영어자음음소의 구별에 비해 영어모음음소의 구별에 상대적인 어려움을 겪고 있다는 점이다. 둘째, 영어모음음소 중에서도/ə:/와 /ɔ:/의 구별에 심각한 어려움을 겪고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 셋째로, 반모음/w/음의 유무에 따른 구별능력에서는 피 실험자 전원이 어려움 없이 구별해내고 있었는데, 이는 반모음/w/의 유무를 단어의 발음에서 쉽게 구별하고 있음을 보여주는 증거이다. 이러한 실험의 데이터 분석을 시각화함으로써 실험결과를 영어교육현장에서 활용할 수 있도록 스펙트로그램의 그림분석을 병행하였다. This experimental study aims at understanding the Korean subjects' phonemic awareness in the English minimal pairs. For the purpose of the experiment, English listening comprehension tests were designed using minimal pairs and conducted among subjects, and the results of the tests were analyzed with the help of spectrogram. From the results of this study, I could find out three important things: First, subjects have difficulty in understanding and distinguishing English vowel minimal pairs. Second, among the English vowel minimal pairs, they had much difficulty in distinguishing between /ə:/ and /ɔ:/. Third, subjects could recognize the semivowel /w/ in words without any difficulty. In addition to this, I tried to analyze the results using the spectrogram, which helps to educate students effectively.

Korean listeners’ perception of L2 English phoneme contrast

The current study investigates how Korean L2 listeners identify English minimal pairs contrasting in voicing and manner and attempts to testify the essential tenets of the Perceptual Assimilation Model. Another purpose of our research is to explore other factors which might affect the identification patterns within the identical contrast categories proposed by PAM. Identification tasks were performed with target vowel and consonant contrasts within real word and nonce word conditions. Identification accuracy and reaction time were measured to evaluate the relative difficulty of L2 sound identification. First, we found that Korean listeners encountered the most difficulty in identifying L2 English minimal pairs in the Single Category contrast, followed by those in the Category Goodness contrast, and those in the TC contrast were most accurately and rapidly identified in accordance with the predictions of the PAM model. Next, it was shown that there were varying levels of difficulty in identification tasks within the TC and SC contrast. This finding suggests that PAM is not sufficient to predict L2 identification accuracy and other factors should be taken into consideration, including the Speech Learning Model, and other phonological factors such as manner of articulation, the vocalicity of the segments, individual contrast type, etc.

Perception of English Vowel Categories by Korean University Students

The paper examined Korean university students’ perception of English vowel categories /?/, /?/, /ae/, /?/, and /?/ using English minimal pairs designed for the study. Thirty female freshmen recruited from a university in Seoul took part in the discrimination and identification tests. The results showed that most students did not have much difficulty discriminating the vowel contrasts between /?/ & /?/, /?/ & /ae/, and /?/ & /?/. However, they had a great difficulty identifying target vowel categories in the identification test, although students in the high-proficiency group outperformed those in the low-proficiency group. The overall results indicated that the students’ perception of English vowel categories was affected by task types, students’ L1 vowel categories, and their English proficiency. However, the results of the experiments showed that the students’ familiarity with the target words was not correlated with their perceptual accuracy. The findings of the study were further discussed in terms of task effects, vowel category variance, error patterns, EFL learners’ phonetic category representation, and L2 speech perception models.

Cantonese English as a Second Language Learners’ Perceived Relations Between “Similar” L1 and L2 Speech Sounds: A Test of the Speech Learning Model

This article reports on the results of a research study that investigated Cantonese English as a second language (ESL) learners’ perception of English speech sounds, their perceived relations between “similar” English and Cantonese sounds, as well as the applicability of the claims of the Speech Learning Model (SLM) to second language (L2) learning by Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong. Forty university English majors participated in a perception study that required them to identify English minimal pairs, to classify a target English sound as a Cantonese sound and to rate the degree of similarity of a certain English sound to a “similar” Cantonese sound. It is found that Cantonese ESL learners’ perception of L2 speech sounds is intimately related to their perceived similarity between certain first language (L1) and L2 contrasts. The research provides empirical support for the SLM, affirming the adverse effects of similarity on L2 learning. It also calls for the inclusion of perception training in an L2 phonology program. Further research is needed to include learners from different linguistic backgrounds and at different English proficiency levels.

The perception of English onset glides produced by Korean speakers*

This study explores Korean learners` production of English onsets with the glide w or j by investigating native English speakers` perception of those onsets produced by Korean learners. In an experiment identifying Korean learners` production of English minimal pairs which differ in the presence or absence of the onset glide, it was found that native English speakers exhibited difficulties in perceiving Korean learners` pronunciation of the English ``w + round vowel`` and ``j + high front vowel`` sequences, which are not attested in Korean. In addition, native English speakers experienced problems perceiving Korean learners` pronunciation of the English /kw/ sequence although it occurs in Korean. It is conjectured that the combined effects of the shorter VOT with English /kw/ and w-deletion or the phonetic realization of /w/ as a secondary articulation of a preceding consonant in Korean triggered such results in our study.

Temporal analysis of articulatory speech errors using direct image analysis of real time magnetic resonance imaging.

Articulometry studies have demonstrated that speech errors often involve gestural intrusions that are coproduced with other gestures and can go unnoticed because they are not always perceived to be segmental errors. [Mowrey and MacKay (1990)]. Real time magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine tongue movement during the production of English minimal pairs “cop-top,” “kid-kim,” “sop-shop,” and “bad-bang.” Subjects’ upper airways were imaged in the midsagittal plane while they uttered repetitions of each word pair as rapidly as possible for 15 sec. Degree of constriction in each region of interest (labial, alveolar, post-alveolar, and velic) was automatically tracked with direct image processing techniques. We calculate the mean intensity of temporally correlated pixels in that region–a metric which has been found to provide a robust estimate of constriction degree in noisy data. [Lammert (in preparation).] Gestural intrusions are observed throughout these data; frequency of occurrence increases with speech rate. Intrusions are invariably synchronous with the alternating contrastive gesture, e.g., additional velic gestures are observed at the same time as the tongue tip constriction in the word pair “cop-top.” These data are consistent with the hypothesis that speech production involves the coordination of dynamically defined action units. [Goldstein et al. (2007).]

The effects of early English learning on auditory perception of English minimal pairs by Taiwan university students.

Auditory perception of English minimal pairs was tested with or without noise background. Each subject was interviewed after the test to collect information regarding their early experience on learning English as a foreign language. This study was designed to examine the differential effects of learning English at three age-starting points and two learning durations. This study hopes to determine how childhood experience of English learning (which is not mandatory in public elementary schools) has affected the auditory competence of university students in distinguishing English minimal pairs. Results showed that age effects were salient only under condition of noise background. Without the interference of background noise, most subjects performed well enough to obliterate any potential differences.

Visual feedback training for a nasal/non-nasal distinction

Native speakers of some Chinese dialects do not make a distinction between /n/ and /l/. This lack of a phonemic distinction may be a problem when these speakers learn English and the distinction is often difficult to teach. Three native Chinese speakers from Shanghai who had been in the US less than 2 years participated in a training experiment using a nasometer to provide visual feedback. Production was trained in initial position in minimal pairs using initial /n/–/l/ and /sn/–/sl/ pairs. Subjects’ perception of the distinction in English minimal pairs was tested prior to training and post-training using both same/different and categorization tasks.

Intelligibility of English “voicing” produced by Arabs

The implicit claim of traditional approaches to the phonetic and phonological aspects of second language acquisition by adults is that pronunciation difficulty occurs almost exclusively at the abstract level of segmental features. Thus the “contrastive analysis hypothesis” predicts pronunciation difficulty for second language learners when the phonetic inventory of the native language lacks a phoneme of the target language. It would predict, then, that English /p/ and /v/ should be difficult for Arabs since Arabic lacks these two phonemes. An intelligibility test, however, revealed that our native English listeners had no serious difficulty identifying “voiced” from “voiceless” obstruents in the English minimal pairs spoken by 10 Arabs. Our experimental approach, which is based on the very theoretical framework of traditional approaches to the analysis of foreign accented speech, nevertheless yielded results which counter the predictions of that framework. It, also, verifies the results of recent research on foreign accent (F. Mitleb, J. Acoust. Soc. Am . Suppl. 1, 73 , 1983) that non-segmental level differences and/or similarities between languages play an important role in second language learning.

Intelligibility of English “voicing” produced by Arabs

The implicit claim of traditional approaches to the phonetic and phonological aspects of second language acquisition by adults is that pronunciation difficulty occurs almost exclusively at the abstract level of segmental features. Thus the “contrastive analysis hypothesis” predicts pronunciation difficulty for second language learners when the phonetic inventory of the native language lacks a phoneme of the target language. It would predict, then, that English /p/ and /v/ should be difficult for Arabs since Arabic lacks these two phonemes. An intelligibility test, however, revealed that our native English listeners had no serious difficulty identifying “voiced” from “voiceless” obstruents in the English minimal pairs spoken by ten Arabs. Our experimental approach, which is based on the very theoretical framework of traditional approaches to the analysis of foreign accented speech, nevertheless yielded results which counter the predictions of that framework. It also verifies the results of recent research on foreign accent [F. Mitleb, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 73, S29 (1983)] that nonsegmental level differences and/or similarities between languages play an important role in second language learning. [Research supported by Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.]