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Phonological Constraints on the Acquisition
of Mid Vowels in English, Mandarin, and
Southern Min for College Students in Taiwan
Advisor: Dr. Raung-fu Chung
Graduate: Li-Wen Huang
1. Introduction
1.1 Background and Motivation
1.2 Purposes of the Study
1.3 Research Questions
Background and Motivation
 There is no [ , , ] in Mandarin Chinese or other
Chinese languages spoken in Taiwan.
 There is no [e] ([ej] in Southern Min and Hakka,
although there are [ej] and [ow] in Mandarin Chinese.
 It is, therefore, interesting that whether Taiwanese
students are able to perceive as well as produce the
English [ej] (as in say] and [ow] (as in so).
Purpose of the Study
 Focus on mid vowels /e/ and /o/.
 Production:
understanding how the subjects pronounce
the mid vowels, and how they are affected by
their 1st and 2nd language.
 Perception:
know if they can tell the differences between
the mid vowels /e/, / /, / /, and /o/, / /
Research Questions
(1) Can students in Taiwan identify the differences between the five
mid vowels /e/, / /, / /, /o/, and / / in English, Mandarin and
Southern Min?
(2) What are the roles of the native language in the acquisition of
English as a 3rd language?
(3) What are the differences between English vowel /e/, / /, and/ /,
Mandarin vowel /ei/(ㄟ) and /e/(ㄝ), and SM vowel /e/? On the contrary,
what are the differences between English vowel /o/ and / /, Mandarin
vowel /ou/(ㄡ) and /o/(ㄛ), and SM vowel /o/?
(4) Which of the mother languages influences English more, Mandarin or
SM?
2. Literature Review
2.1 Acoustic Analysis of Vowels
2.2 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)
Acoustic Analysis of Vowels
 後面這幾章三張圖都換過，美國英語用Hillerbrand
et al. （我論文的(4))
 國語用(9)
 閩南語用(10)這樣才能顯現你有看書
Acoustic Analysis of Vowels
 2. Mandarin Vowel System
 9 monophthongs :
/ i(ㄧ), u(ㄨ), y(ㄩ), a(ㄚ), (ㄛ), (ㄜ), e(ㄝ),
 Diphthongs: (Chung, 2006)
Falling: (vowel+glide)
/ei/ and /ou/
(ㄟ)
(ㄡ)
Raising: (glide+vowel)
/ie/ and /uo/
(ㄧㄝ) (ㄨㄛ)
(ㄦ), /
Acoustic Analysis of Vowels
 3. Southern Min Vowel
 Spoken by about 73% of the populations in Taiwan in 2009
 6 monothphongs: /I, e, ,
, o, a/
CAH:
Contrastive analysis Hypothesis
 Lado (1957) –
 By systematically comparing a language and culture to be
learned with the students’ native language and culture one can
predict and describe in which areas language learners will have
difficulties.
 Chung (1996) Taiwanese studetns are usually confused in pronouncing English
bought [b t] and boat [bot]
 Another example between Mandarin and Southern Min is 烈 [lie]
and 累 [lei] which people will pronounce as [le].
CAH:
Contrastive analysis Hypothesis
 Tai (2000) The subjects cannot contrast the five pairs of sounds: /s, /, /i,
/, /e, /, /o, / and /u, /.
 Tseng (2011) More than half of the 102 subjects cannot do well on
differentiating the target vowels /e/, / /, and / /
 Wang (2012) English vowels /o/, /u/, and /a/ are influenced by the subjects’
Mandarin.
3. Methodology
3.1 Participants
3.2 Instruments
3.3 Procedures
Participants
 28 female participants
 Second grade of a junior college in Chiayi
 Learned English for at least nine years
 L1: SM
L2: Mandarin
Instruments for Data Collecting
(1) A questionnaire:
For the subjects’ family background and learning
experience
(2) Production experiment:
Three reading lists in English, Mandarin, and
Southern Min
(3) Perception experiment:
Listening task for distinguishing the
differences between the mid vowels in the
three languages
Instruments for Data Collection
(4) Recording Materials:
- a notebook computer
- a head-microphone with a speaker
-a recording shelter
- Praat SoundRecorder
Instruments for Data analysis
(1) Praat:
To adopt the formants of the vowels
(2) Micro Office Excel:
To compare the three groups of vowels and
transformed the numbers into vowel charts.
Procedures
Design the questionnaire and the reading and listening lists
Recruit subjects
Subjects fill in the questionnaire
Use Praat to record the sound files
Administer the listening task
Analyze the data
Discuss the analyzed results
4. Results and Discussion
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Production Experiment
4.3 The perception Experiment
4.3.1 The First Part of the Perception Experiment
4.3.2 The Second Part of the Perception Experiment
Vowel Movements
English /e, D, W/
 The F1 and F2 of /e/,
/D/, /W/ were
produced similarly.
 Only the F2 of /e/
was higher. So the
tongue body was
more front.
Vowel Movements
English /e, D, W/ & SM /e/
 The F1 of SM /e/ was
lower while the F2 was
almost the same as
English but went
down at last.
 SM /e/ was articulated
higher but almost the
same backness with
English /e, D, W/
Vowel Movements
English /e, D, W/ & Mandarin /ei/(ㄟ)
 The F1 of Mandarin /ei/
was lower and F2 was
higher.
 Mandarin /ei/ was
articulated higher and
more frontward.
Vowel Movements
English /o, C/
 The F1 of /o/ and /C/
were very alike.
 The F2 of /o/ was
higher at first and
lower at the end.
 However, the shape
of /o/ and /C/ in F1
and F2 were very
similar.
Vowel Movements
English /o, C/ & SM /o/
 The F1 of SM /o/ was
higher than English. But
the F2 was almost at the
same height.
 However, the latter half
of SM /o/ was straight in
F1 and F2 which is
different from English /o/
and /C/.
Vowel Movements
English /o, C/ & Mandarin /ou/(ㄡ)
 The shape was like
English /o/ and /C/ more
than SM /o/. But the F1
and F2 were both higher
than English.
 Mandarin /ou/ was
articulated lower and
more front.
Vowel Movements with Diphthongs
 Because the diphthongs
contain two vowels.
 To compare with
mophthongs, the
vowels were cut into
two parts from point 6
based on the vowel
movements.
Mean Vowel Chart
Subjects
 Only English /(i)e/ was
more similar to
Mandarin /ei/.
 English /e/, /D/, /W/
were all lower than the
L1 and L2.
 English /o/, /C/ were
more similar to
Mandarin /ou/.
Mean Vowel Chart
Subjects V.S. Norm-Hillenbran et.al. (1995)
 English /e/, /D/, /W/ were
closer to native speakers’
lax vowel /D/ and /W/.
 Mandarin /ei/ was closer
to the norm’s /W/.
 Most of the mid-front
vowels produced by
Taiwanese students were
closer to native speaker’s
short vowels /D/ and /W/.
 English /o/ and /C/ were
far from the norm’s /o/
and /C/.
Vowel Movements
A Native Speaker (NS)
 The shapes of the vowels
for NS were obviously
different respectively.
 The F1 and F2 of English /e/
was the widest, followed by
/D/ and then /W/.
 The F1 and F2 of English /o/
was wider than /C/.
Mean Vowel Chart
Subjects V.S. NS
 The subjects’ English
mid-front vowels were
closer to NS’s lax
vowel /D/ and then /W/.
 Mid-back vowels were
closer to NS’s tense
vowel /o/.
Rank of Similarities
/e/, /D/, /W/
 Mandarin /ei/(ㄟ) was the
closest to English /e/, /D/, /W/
in F1 and /e/ in F2.
 SM /e/ was the closest to
Enlgish /D/, /W/ in F2.
Rank of Similarities
/o/, /C/
 Mandarin /ou/(ㄡ) was the
closest to English /o/, /C/ in
F1.
 SM /o/ was the closest to
English /o/, /C/ in F2.
Rank of Similarities
 The distance of English
tense /e/ was near
Mandarin /ei/.
 English lax /D/, /W/ were
near SM /e/.
 English tense /o/ was
near SM /o/.
 English lax /C/ was near
Mandarin /ou/
Perception Rate of Mid Vowels
 English /e/, /D/, /o/, /C/ can
be distinguished by the
subjects.
 Only /W/ confused with
English /e/ was the most
difficult sound for the
students.
Comparison with L1 and L2
 The subjects thought English
/D/, /W/, /o/, /C/ sounded like
Mandarin.
 49.4% of the subjects thought
English /e/ sounded like SM.
5. Conclusion
RQ1: Can the subjects identify the differences
between the five mid vowels /e/, / /, / /, /o/, and / /
in English, Mandarin and Southern Min?
 In the perception experiment, most of the subjects
can tell the differences apart from English vowels /e/,
/D/, /o/, and /C/.
 /W/ is the most difficult to perceive .
RQ2:What are the roles of the native language in the
acquisition of English as a 3rd language?
 Mandarin /ei/ and SM /e/ are almost at the same
height.
 Mandarin /ei/ and /e/ are placed more front than the
other two languages.
RQ3-1: What are the differences between English
vowel /e/, / /, and/ /, Mandarin vowel /ei/(ㄟ) and
/e/(ㄝ), and SM vowel /e/?
 The places of articulation of English mid-front
vowels are all lower than those of Mandarin and SM.
 English /W/ is the lowest and the most back whereas
Mandarin /e/ is the most front and the highest.
 Mandarin /ei/ and SM /e/ are almost at the same
height.
RQ3-2: what are the differences between English
vowel /o/ and / /, Mandarin vowel /ou/(ㄡ) and
/o/(ㄛ), and SM vowel /o/?
 With regard to the places of articulation of mid-back
vowels, SM /o/ is the lowest.
 Mandarin /o/ is the highest and the most back and
Mandarin /ou/ is the most front of the three languages.
 English /o/ and /C/ are almost at the same place, located
in back of Mandarin /ou/ but in front of Mandarin /o/.
RQ4: Which of the mother languages influences
English more, Mandarin or SM?
 English /e/→Mandarin /ei/
 English /D/ and /W/ →SM /e/
 (Due to the differences of the vowel systems in Mandarin
and SM. )
 English /o/ →SM /o/
 English /C/ →Mandarin /ou/
 (Due to the language transfer of SM to Mandarin.)
Pedagogical Implications
 With the ability to tell the differences between each
vowel does not mean that the students have the ability
to pronounce the sounds correctly. Hence, language
instructors may focus on the speaking skill instead of
listening only.
 The learners were unable to distinguish the differences
between diphthongs /ei, ou/ and monophthongs /D, W,
C/ because of the language transfer of L1 to L2. Thus,
the instructors should give learners the idea of
producing the long vowels and the short vowels before
teaching these vowels in English.
Limitation and Suggestions Further
Study for Study
 Recruit more subjects including females and males
so that researchers can see the differences between
genders.
 Other vowels and consonants are suggested to be
added in further researches.
 More details about open and closed syllables are
necessary for further study.
 More researches can be conducted with tongue
rounded to see more details about English /o/ and
/C/.
Thanks for Your Attention!!