The production of English monophthong vowels by Iranian EFL learners
-
Stefanie Pillai
and
Hilda Delavari
Abstract
This paper examines the production of English monophthong vowels by a group of Iranian learners of English based on an instrumental analysis of the vowels. Data in two speaking contexts were elicited from a group of learners between the ages of 16 and 17. To examine vowel quality, the first and second formant frequencies of the vowels were measured. These values and the duration of the vowels were compared to investigate the extent to which vowel contrast was maintained. The findings suggest that the learners tend not to contrast vowels (in terms of quality) when there is only one category of a similar vowel in Persian (e.g. English /i:/–/ɪ/ and /ʊ/–/u:/) whereas quality rather than length contrast is maintained for /e/–/æ/, both of which occur in Persian.
© Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, 2012
Articles in the same Issue
- Morphology-based explanation of modal auxiliary syntax in present-day English
- The distributional residue in Natural Phonology and its implications for morphologization
- A corpus-driven quantitative approach to the construal of Polish
- The production of English monophthong vowels by Iranian EFL learners
- Dowty’s aspectual tests: standing the test of time but failing the test of aspect
- The syntax of Subject Control across an object: on the limitations of the silent PP hypothesis
Articles in the same Issue
- Morphology-based explanation of modal auxiliary syntax in present-day English
- The distributional residue in Natural Phonology and its implications for morphologization
- A corpus-driven quantitative approach to the construal of Polish
- The production of English monophthong vowels by Iranian EFL learners
- Dowty’s aspectual tests: standing the test of time but failing the test of aspect
- The syntax of Subject Control across an object: on the limitations of the silent PP hypothesis
