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May 10, Renmin U
English Vowels in Taiwanese
college EFL Learners
Raung-fu Chung
Southern Taiwan University
[email protected]
Outline of the talk
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Introduction
English as a second or a foreign language?
Vowels and vowel acquisition
Related theories: MDH and SLM
Cases
Concluding remarks
1. Introduction
a. English as a second or a foreign language
in Taiwan?
b. English, as a matter of fact, as a third or a
fourth language in Taiwan
(i) L1 = native language = Southern Min
(ii) L2 = lingua franca = Mandarin Chinese
(iii) L3 = foreign language = English
Findings:
Let us examine the elementary school
students in the beginning.
Elementary students’ English
vowels:
Elementary student’s Mandarin
vowels
Elementary school students’s
average of 3 languages:
40103
English
Mandarin
S. M.
F1
F2
F1
F2
F1
F2
i
457
2849
380
2711
426
2439
e
565
2563
650
2423
544
1959
ǝ
733
1041
803
1400
685
1494
A
846
1523
868
1718
879
1491
o
630
1087
592
916
707
1221
u
434
1396
469
1006
446
865
Vowels
40121 Eng., Mand., S. M. Vowels chart
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
200
i
u
400
i
i
u
Eng.
u
Mand
ǝ
600
e
ǝ
e
o
ǝ
e
800
o
1000
a
a
o
a
1200
S. M.
An examination fo the data:
Summary:
a. [i] is more like that of Mandarin
b. [a] is higher, much like that of Mandarin
c. [u] is between Mandarin and Southern
Min, also showin the impact of Mandarin
d. [e] is exactly a reduplicate of the
Mandarin [e]
e. [o] is higher, quite different from the [o]s
in Mandarin and Southern Min
2. College students
• Subject: 30 college students & 3 native
speakers
• Age of college students: they are 19-20
years old, and they are sophomores
• Age of native speakers: they are 27, 28 and
36 years old respectively
2. College students’ vowels:
College student’s vowel chart:
College students: [i][u] and[a]
Summary:
a. [i]: much like that of Mandarin, while it is
different from those of English, SM
b. [u]: much like that of Mandarin, somewhat
different from those of English, and SM
c. [a]: also like that of Mandarin
Mid vowels: [e] and [o]
The mid vowels [e] and [o] are quite intriguing
in that they are distributed in a far apart
space for each language. However, college
learner’s [e] and [o] are also more like those
of Mandarin.
This is not surprising for English and
Mandarin share the same backness
assimilation constraint, while SM does not
allow vowels with the same backness:
This is not surprising for English and
Mandarin share the same backness
assimilation constraint, while SM does not
allow vowels with the same backness:
English, Mandarin, Southern
in backness
Concluding remarks:
1. Both studies, based on English vowels of
elementary and college EFL learners,
indicate that Taiwanese learn or acquire
English on the basis of Mandarin, although
SM is indeed their first language.
2. The results further confirm the role of
backness constraints.
Implications
1. Theoretical implication
CAH (Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis)
SLM (Speech Learning Model)
MDH (Markedness Differential
Hypothesis)
Pedagogical Implications
1. Positive transfer:
2. Sound identification and drill practice
3. How far can Communicative go?
Remaining issues:
1. Vowel
category correspondence
Egnlish [] vs. Mandarin [ㄟ]
English [e] vs. Mandarin [ㄟ]
both being: [ey]
Thank you for your attention
Comments are welcome!