2007/01/31

Cheng, M.-C. (2004). A study on production of English Vowels by Taiwanese adult learners: an acoustic perspective. Journal of National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, 33, 131–144.

Presentation: Angela
Summary: Sarah

This study explored the production of English vowels by Taiwanese adult learners. Specifically, the acoustic approach was adopted and F1 and F2 of the uttered vowels were measured. Subjects were 20 native Taiwanese speakers (ten males and ten females) who have learned English for at least three years. Twenty native English speakers (ten males and ten females) also participated as the reference group. Results showed that vowels pronounced by Taiwanese learners were distinctly different from those of native speakers. Moreover, among Taiwanese learners, gender made a difference. In general, although both genders had difficulties in producing long vowels, males pronounced some vowels more accurately while females pronounced other vowels more accurately. These findings could be applied in pedagogy, in which learners were able to know specifically how to adjust the tongue position when producing vowels.