1. Chinese Learners’ Perception and Production of the vowels: /e/, /ei/, /o/, & /ou/ in English by Contrastive Analysis 研究生 : 張悅寧 報告人 : NA2C0003 傅學琳 WHO WHAT HOW

2. Motivation The sound patterns of L1 are affecting their ability to pronounce English. The pronunciation errors made by L2 learners are reflections of the pronunciation system of their native language.

3. Motivation Learners are confused the tense vowels with the lax vowels. lax tense ㄝ ~ / e / vs. ㄟ ~ / ei / ㄛ ~ / o / vs. ㄡ ~ / ou /

4. Motivation Related studies 1. Teng (2002) : examined only the English production part of lax and tense vowels. 2. Chen (1999) : both perception and production, but examined consonants, vowels, intonation, and stress in general.

5. Purpose 1.To compare the articulation of one with the other in each pair of similar vowels in Mandarin /ei; e/, /ou; o/ and English /ei; e/, /ou; o/. 2.To investigate whether or not the pronunciation of L1 interferes / helps the pronunciation of L2.

6. Purpose 3.To find out people who speak Southern Min have more difficulty speaking English and thus make more mistakes than people who speak Mandarin when distinguishing English vowels /ei; e/ and /ou; o/, as there are no /ei/ and /ou/ sounds in Southern Min.

7. Purpose 4.To know if perception and production are interrelated since the phenomenon of speaking English incorrectly might not just be a production issue. It might depend on the learner’s ability to perceive the pairs of sounds in the second language.

8. Purpose 5.To know if it is easier for Chinese students to distinguish the vowels /ei/ and /ou/ (/e/ and /o/) in English because they are more similar to /ei/ and /ou/ in Mandarin.

9. Research Questions RQ1. Does the pronunciation of vowels in a native language interfere or help the pronunciation of vowels in second language? RQ 2. Do people who predominantly speak Southern Min have more difficulty and thus make more mistakes than people who predominantly speak Mandarin in distinguishing these two pairs of English vowels /ei; e/, and /ou; o/?

10. Research Questions RQ3. Are the abilities of distinguishing among the two pairs of vowels in perception and production interrelated? Can learners adequately pronounce sounds which are not well perceived, or is a good perception a prerequisite to accurate pronunciations? RQ4. According to the positive transfer, is it easier for Chinese students to distinguish the vowels /ei/ and /ou/ (as opposed to /e/ and /o/) in English because they are more similar to /ei/ and /ou/ in Mandarin?

11. Literature Review A. Contrastive Analysis (CA) Charles C. Fries (1945) Systematically compares similarities and differences between native languages and target languages. Brown (2000) It cannot be denied that interference from the first language does exist and Contrastive Analysis can help the teacher to explain difficulties students have with phonology.

12. B. Comparison of the Phonological Systems Articulatory characteristics of Mandarin vowels and English vowels Literature Review English Vowels Mandarin Vowels FrontnessHeightDiphthongizationLip roundingTenseness /e//e/ ㄝ mid- frontlower-midmonophthongunroundedlax /ei/ ㄟ mid- frontupper-middiphthongunroundedtense /o//o/ ㄛ mid-backlower-midmonophthongroundedlax /ou/ ㄡ mid-backupper-middiphthongroundedtense