Perception of english vowels as first and second language

Abstract

This study investigates the perception of four English vowels: lil, As/, and /u/ by native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS) of English —Spanish NS. Participants completed one perception task in which they were asked to select their ideal exemplar of the vowels in a method of adjustment (MOA) task. NS (n=17) and NNS (n=17) selected synthetic stimuli with different formant (F1 & F2) values. The results obtained from this study suggest that NNS do not perceive vowels /V and /u/ like NS do. However, they can perceive vowels /V and /u/ like NS do. For example, the Fl & F2 values of the stimuli selected for /V and /u/ by NNS differs from those selected by the NS more than the Fl and F2 values of the synthetic stimuli selected for /i/ and /u/. This finding reveals that learners of English perceive these two vowels /V and As1 differently from the way NS do;