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

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DOI: 10.23977/curtm.2018.11003 | Downloads: 47 | Views: 4439

Author(s)

Xiaomu Ren 1

Affiliation(s)

1 Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Linguistics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

Corresponding Author

Xiaomu Ren

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS

Native language transfer, American English, Mandarin, Front vowels, Vowel formants, F1, F2

CITE THIS PAPER

Xiaomu, R., A Case Study on American English Front Vowel Quality and How Native Language Transfer Could Affect Pronunciation. Curriculum and Teaching Methodology (2018) Vol. 1: 9-15.

REFERENCES

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