Professor Chung Raung-FuStudent: Wang Yi-wen

M98C0102

“I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it…”

---Lord Kelvin, quoted by Peter Ladefoged, ICPhS, Leeds, 1975

• Chapter One: -- Backgrounds and Motivation --Purposes of the Study --Research Questions• Chapter Two --Literature Review• Chapter Three: Methodology --Participants --Instruments --Procedure --Data analysis

Being an English teacher since education reforms

Phonology assignment

Do these students have the similar findings?

Investigating the vowel qualities of Taiwanese EFL young learners in English, Mandarin and Southern Min.

Comparison of vowels among English, Mandarin and Southern Min.

To what extent can the inference between L1 and L2 or L2 and L3 be found out on the basis of CA.

1. Whether their English vowel qualities are close to L1 (Southern Min) or L2 (Mandarin ) ?

2. What are the roles of L1 (S.M.) and L2

(Mandarin) in the acquisition of English?

3. What are the general properties of the vowels in these three languages?

• CAH • SLM

• Current language teaching

Fries (1945) L1 vs English keep practicing prevent interference of L1

Lado (1957) L1 vs L2 (similiar) easy to learn L1 vs L2 (different) hard to learn

Interference (Odlin, 1989)

Sound transfer (Odlin, 1989; & Chung, 2009)

Flege (1987) 1. against traditional CA

2. focus on segment acquisition 3. Similarity Effect

Mandarin Vowel Chart

English Vowel Chart

Audio-lingual 1. 1950s -60s 2. focused on forms 3. listening and speaking 4. drills

Communicative Language Teaching 1. 1960s till now 2. focused on functions 3. four skills 4. role-plays, pair works

• Participants• Instruments --Questionnaire for students --Word lists --Praat• Procedures of data collection• Data analysis

• 20 Taiwanese EFL young learners• School: A primary school in Eastern District,

Tainan City• Gender: 10 boys & 10 girls• From two different classes• Age: average 10• Grade: 4th • Language background: L1S.M. L2Mandarin L3English• English learning experience: over 2 years

A Municipal primary school in Tainan city, Taiwan

2 English classes a week 6 Mandarin classes a week 1 Southern Min class a week Learners speak both Mandarin and Southern

Min at home

Background information Q1~Q5

English learning experience Q6~Q10

English pronunciation attitdue Q11~Q16

Generating word list

Modifying word list

Selecting participants

Recording + Questionnaire

Analyzing vowels with Praat

Result

RQ1 whether L1 influence L2 or L1 influence L3?

--vowel qualities of 3 languages --20 / 10 boys vs 10 girls / class 1 v.s. class 2 RQ2 the roles of L1 and L2 in the acquisition of

L3 --F1 & F2 --vowel plotting RQ3 the properties of these 3 languages --vowel plotting

F1 & F2 of [e]

in “bay”

F1

F2

English vowel/ i / from bead

Mandarin vowel/ i / from 鼻子

S. M. vowel/ i / from 米香

F1F2

• Introduction• Vowel qualities of 20 pariticipants --English --Mandarin --Southern Min• The role of L1 and L2 in the acquisition of English• General properties of vowels in three languages• Results of questionnarie

/i/, /a/, /u/ occupied the three corners of the vowel space

Similar tongue height: // and /o/ Similar tongue front: // and /a/ /o/ and /u/

/i/, /a/, /u/ occupied the three corners of the vowel space

Similar tongue height: // and /o/; /i/ higher than /u/ Similar tongue front: // and /a/ /o/ and /u/

/i/, /a/, /u/ occupied the three corners of the vowel space

Similar tongue height: // and /o/; /i/ higher than /u/ Similar tongue front: // and /a/

English/i/is close to Southern Min /i/. English/e,,o/is close to Mandarin. English vowels occupied the most front tongue

part. Mandarin vowels middle Southern Min back

Boys similar tongue front: //, /u/,/o/ Girls /e/ the most deviation

Boys /i/ is higher than /u/ occupied bigger space Girls /e, , o/ similar height // is more front than boys’

Boys /i/ is higher than /u/ occupied bigger space Girls /e, , o/ similar height // is more front than boys’

40121 English 　 Mandarin

　 S. M. 　

　 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2

389 2808 444 2664 435 2319

699 2515 691 2535 670 1996

ǝ 550 1551 779 1607 645 1582

1007 1724 1092 1677 1087 1719

o 665 1166 864 1336 834 1263

491 964 496 1277 395 837

Half of the participants spoke Mandarin at home. 2 English classes per week. 1 Southern Min class per week. This influenced the vowel properties of English.

Personal background information.

Language spoke at home

SouthernMin

Mandarin

13 2039% 61%

Main learning material textbooks Other resources Songs : melody, rhyming,

mood

Learning resources.

Englishteaching

radio

Englishentertainment

radio Songs

English TV

English Films

3 5 13 9 66% 10.80% 28% 19% 13%

20 % have difficulty learning content is easy multiple learning resources

English pronunciation is…to me.Very

difficultDifficult

A littledifficult

A little easy

Easy Very easy

0 0 4 6 8 20% 0% 20% 30% 40% 10%

46 % had extra English classes after school

I think my English pronunciation is…

Very accurate AccurateA little accurate

A littleincorrect

IncorrectVery

incorrect3 8 3 4 2 0

6% 40% 6% 20% 10% 0%

I have difficulty in pronouncing English because…

Not study hard

Noimitatingobjects

Not interested

No chancefor

practicing

Influencedby L1

3 0 6 5 615% 0% 30% 25% 30%

They lived with grandparents.

I have no difficulty in pronouncing English because…

Study hardGood

imitatingobjects

Highly interested

Find chance topractice

Stay in English-speakingcountry

4 8 3 4 120% 40% 15% 20% 5%

My imitating object is…

English teacher at school

English teacher at cram school

Parents CDs

9 7 3 145% 35% 15% 5%

Good pronunciation interesting materials high motivation good modeling

1. Summary of the findings2. Theoretical implications3. Pedagogical implications

1. These participants’ English were influenced by Mandarin.

2. Vowels /i, o/ easy for learners3. Vowel /e, u/ difficult for learners4. Boys’ vowel space is bigger than girls.5. Boys’ tongue position is higher than girls.6. Early learners do not necessarily learn better.

1. Mandarin influences English learning more than Southern Min

2. Students speak Mandarin more often than they speak SM

3. CA has its role in English teaching

1. L1 and L2 interferences do exist language teachers should apply CA theory into pronunciation instruction.

2. Providing well-designed pronunciation curriculums, in particular, for drills

3. Fluency and accuracy are both important for learners

Vowel duration, formant movement, vowel errors

Ages keep tracking of these participants The amounts of participants The word lists Choose a comparing group: native speakers