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Article published In: Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 10:2 (2024) ► pp.232–257

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The role of L1-dialect in L2 production

Acoustic measures on Xining and Leshan dialect speakers’ production of English vowels

ORCiD logo with link | Yangzhou University
Published online: 31 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.21054.li
Abstract
This study compared the productions of American English (AE) vowels /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /ɪ/, /æ/, /ʊ/, /ʌ/, and /ɑ/ between speakers of two Chinese dialects, the Leshan dialect (LSd) and the Xining dialect (XNd). The participants were native speakers of XNd (n = 120) and LSd (n = 120) with advanced English proficiency. Their vowel productions were compared with those of 22 native AE speakers. The results showed that (1) XNd and LSd participants significantly differed in F1 and/or F2 from AE participants when producing /ɪ/, /æ/, /ʌ/, and /ʊ/ and /ɪ/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, and /ʌ/, respectively; (2) compared with AE participants, XNd participants had significantly longer durations of /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ʌ/, /ɛ/, and /æ/, and LSd participants had significantly longer durations of /ɪ/, /ʌ/, and /ɛ/. Overall, the vowels that differed in production from that of native speakers were absent in both the L1 dialects and L1 of participants.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.The vowel systems of XNd, LSd, Mandarin and Midland American English
  • 4.Research question and hypotheses
    • 4.1Research question
    • 4.2Hypotheses
  • 5.Participants
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Materials
    • 5.3Procedure
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1F1 and F2 values
    • 6.2Durational results
    • 6.3XNd speakers’ productions of /ɑ, ɔ/
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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