Professor Chung Raung-Fu Student: 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 s -60s 2. focused on forms 3. listening and speaking 4. drills  Communicative Language Teaching s 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: 4 th Language background: L1  S.M. L2  Mandarin L3  English 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 F1 F2

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’

40121English Mandarin S. M. F1F2F1F2F1F2 i e ǝ A o u

 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 Southern Min Mandarin %61%

 Main learning material  textbooks  Other resources  Songs : melody, rhyming, mood Learning resources. English teaching radio English entertainment radio Songs English TV English Films %10.80%28%19%13%

 20 % have difficulty  learning content is easy  multiple learning resources English pronunciation is…to me. Very difficultDifficult A little difficult A little easy EasyVery easy % 20%30%40%10%  46 %  had extra English classes after school I think my English pronunciation is… Very accurateAccurate A little accurate A little incorrect Incorrect Very incorrect %40%6%20%10%0%

I have difficulty in pronouncing English because… Not study hard No imitating objects Not interested No chance for practicing Influenced by L %0%30%25%30% They lived with grandparents. I have no difficulty in pronouncing English because… Study hard Good imitating objects Highly interested Find chance to practice Stay in English- speaking country %40%15%20%5%

My imitating object is… English teacher at school English teacher at cram school ParentsCDs %35%15%5%  Good pronunciation  interesting materials  high motivation  good modeling

1. Summary of the findings 2. Theoretical implications 3. Pedagogical implications

1. These participants’ English were influenced by Mandarin. 2. Vowels /i, o/  easy for learners 3. Vowel /e, u/  difficult for learners 4. 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