Document Type
Conference Paper
Department/Unit
Department of Communication Studies
Language
English
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT), a perception-only training, on Cantonese ESL learners’ production of English /ɪ/-/iː/ contrast in terms of the first and second formant frequencies as well as the vowel duration. A total of 17 subjects participated in this study and they were all trained over 20 sessions of the HVPT. The results showed that after training, the male learners could improve their production of the two vowels in terms of F1, F2 and vowel duration; the female subjects only improved in terms of F1 and vowel duration. This suggested that perceptual learning can be transferred to the production domain and the subjects could generally improve their productions in terms of both vowel height and vowel length. More individual variations were observed in the change of vowel frontness/backness. This study showed that after training, the awareness of the differences, particularly for the length, between the target vowel contrasts was raised.
Keywords
High Variability Phonetic Training, speech acoustics, speech perception and production
Publication Date
2015
Source Publication Title
Proceedings of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference (PTLC2015)
Start Page
107
End Page
111
Conference Location
London, United Kingdom
Publisher
PTLC
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference (Copyright of individual papers resides with the authors)
ISSN (print)
978-0-9926394-1-9
Recommended Citation
Wong, Janice W S. "The Effects High-Variability Phonetic Training on Cantonese ESL Learners’ Production of English Vowel Contrasts - An Acoustic Analysis." Proceedings of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference (PTLC2015) (2015): 107-111.