Introduction. Statement of the Problem: This is an investigation of the vowels and vowel combinations which appear in certain basal readers designed for use in the primary grades.

Wong, Wing Sze. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 391-447). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes includes Chinese.

Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / Bibliography: leaves 221-224. / M.S.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / English Studies and Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Arts

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US (US Census Bureau, 2011) and are learning American English (AE) as a second language (L2). Many may experience difficulty in understanding AE. Accurate perception of AE vowels is important because vowels carry a large part of the speech signal (Kewley-Port, Burkle, & Lee, 2007). The relationship between native language and L2 vowel inventories causes some vowels to be more difficult to perceive accurately than others (Best & Tyler, 2007). The present study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults assimilate AE vowels to their native vowel inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminate and identify the vowels. Early bilingual listeners demonstrated similar perceptual assimilation patterns to late bilingual listeners, but judged AE vowels as less Spanish sounding than did late learners. Additionally, discrimination and identification accuracy of L2 vowels improved with early age of L2 acquisition. However, early bilingual listeners’ vowel perception was not native-like. Certain AE vowels (/ʌ/, /ɑ/ and /æ/) were difficult to discriminate and identify. Perceptual assimilation patterns predicted categorial discrimination accuracy, an outcome posited by the Perceptual Assimilation Model-L2 (Best & Tyler, 1997).

Law, Wai Ling. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-180). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Title Page --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v-vii / Chapter 1 Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The focus of this thesis --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- The structure of this thesis --- p.4 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- A changing scene: The use of English worldwide --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Some old pictures and present fallacies --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- Fallacy one - Native English(es) as the starting point and the end point --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Fallacy two - The stability of native models --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Fallacy three - The unarguable definite intelligibility of native varieties --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- English as an international language - The legitimacy of New Englishes --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Theoretical frameworks and research findings on HKE --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Approaches in describing the systems of non-native varieties --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The phonology of HKE --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- The significance of L1 transfer from Cantonese --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.2.2 --- HKE as an independent phonological system --- p.26 / Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- The importance of scrutiny of phonological factors --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- The need for a variation analysis of HKE in bridging the gap --- p.37 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Pilot studies --- p.45 / Chapter 2.3 --- English and Cantonese Phonologies --- p.48 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- English phonology --- p.48 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Cantonese phonology --- p.51 / Chapter 2.4 --- Research questions --- p.60 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Methodology --- p.65 / Chapter 3.1 --- Research setting & selection of participants --- p.65 / Chapter 3.2 --- The participants --- p.69 / Chapter 3.3 --- Research design --- p.71 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Data collection --- p.71 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Procedures --- p.73 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Data processing --- p.74 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Data analysis --- p.76 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Results --- p.85 / Chapter 4.1 --- Description of the analysis --- p.85 / Chapter 4.2 --- Independent variables - Effects of factor groups on vowel productions --- p.97 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Proficiency --- p.97 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Speaker --- p.98 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Stress --- p.101 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Number of syllables --- p.102 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Preceding phonological environment --- p.103 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Following phonological environment --- p.113 / Chapter 4.3 --- Dependent variables - The effects of interactions of factor groups on vowel realizations --- p.116 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Long vowels --- p.116 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Diphthongs --- p.118 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Short vowels --- p.120 / Chapter 4.4 --- A comparison of behaviour of long vowels，diphthongs and short vowels --- p.123 / Chapter Chapter --- 5 Discussion --- p.129 / Chapter 5.1 --- Addressing the research questions --- p.130 / Chapter 5.2 --- Following phonological environment --- p.133 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- L1 transfer from Cantonese --- p.133 / Chapter 5.2.1.1 --- Transfer of Cantonese phonological rules and phonotactic constraints --- p.134 / Chapter 5.2.1.2 --- Effect of sonority distance --- p.140 / Chapter 5.2.1.3 --- Further evidence on interaction of Cantonese and English phonology --- p.146 / Chapter 5.3 --- Preceding phonological environment --- p.147 / Chapter 5.4 --- Stress --- p.151 / Chapter 5.5 --- Number of syllables --- p.153 / Chapter 5.6 --- Ranking of constraints in HKE phonology --- p.154 / Chapter 5.7 --- Implications of insignificance of proficiency and speaker --- p.156 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- "Implications, Limitations，Directions of Future Research and Conclusion" --- p.159 / Chapter 6.1 --- Implications --- p.159 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Future investigations into New Englishes --- p.160 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Language planning --- p.162 / Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations of the present study --- p.165 / Chapter 6.3 --- Directions of future research --- p.167 / Chapter 6.4 --- Conclusion --- p.169 / References --- p.170 / Appendix 1 Questionnaire of personal information --- p.181 / Appendix 2 Conversational interview prompting questions --- p.182

Researchers in the cognitive sciences, and in particular those in acoustic phonetics, investigate the acoustic properties in the speech signal that enable listeners to perceive particular speech sounds. Temporal cues have been found to convey information about the linguistic content of an utterance. One acoustic characteristic that is particularly well documented in American English is the difference in vowel duration preceding voiced and voiceless consonants, which has been found to play a role in the perception of the voicing of postvocalic word-final consonants. Research on vowel duration and its role in the perception of the voicing distinction of the following consonant has primarily involved data from native English speakers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the vowel durations preceding word-final voiced and voiceless stops in the English production of four native Spanish speakers. This study sought to determine if differences in vowel duration are exhibited preceding voiced and voiceless consonants in the English production of the native Spanish speakers, and to determine if the vowel durations affected the perception of the voicing distinction of the postvocalic stop by four native English speakers A significant effect of voicing on the vowel durations in the English production of the native Spanish speakers was found. However, the degree of variation in the vowel lengths with respect to voicing was much less than the degree of difference exhibited in native English, and similar to the variation produced in native Spanish. The average mean difference in length with respect to the voicing of the following consonant was 17.8 msec. in the present study. In native English the mean difference between vowels preceding voiced and voiceless consonants ranges from 79 msec. to 92 msec. and in Spanish the average mean difference is 18 msec. Statistical analysis performed to quantify the contribution of vowel duration on the perception of the voicing distinction found only minimal affect. It was concluded that although the cue of vowel duration variation was present in the speech signal of this data, the listeners generally did not utilize it as a cue to the voicing distinction of the following stops.

The purpose of this study was to examine non-English-speaking Brazilian adults' perception of American English vowels at various levels of English contact. Specifically, it addressed two two-vowel American English contrasts, /i/-/I/ and /u/-/[upsilon]/, that both occupy the vowel space of one Brazilian Portuguese category, /i/ and /u/, and one twovowel contrast, /e/-/[epsilon]/, that exists in both languages. For reliability purposes, the three contrasts were presented in two different orders to total six contrasts in all. Predictions, based on Flege, (1995) associated discrimination difficulties with this L1-L2 contrast pairing. However, previous discoveries of non-native speakers' sensitivity to subphonemic differences suggested the potential to overcome L1-related perceptual constraints (Wode, 1994). Five groups of ten participants each [aged 20-40] contributed data [N=50]. Three Austin, Texas-resident groups participated: (group A) native American English speakers, (group B) native Brazilian Portuguese speakers with high English contact, and (group C) native Brazilian Portuguese-speakers with medium English contact. Belo Horizonte, Brazil-resident groups numbered two, including native Brazilian Portuguese speakers with medium English contact (group D) and low English contact (group E.) Each participant took a same-different identification test in which the target vowels appeared within minimal and identical pairs. Within-group results for medium and low contact groups associated significantly greater difficulty with the /u/-/[upsilon]/ contrast. Between-group results found significant differences between high and low contact groups for /u/-/[upsilon]/, /[upsilon]/-/u/, and /I/-/i/; insignificant differences between high contact and native English groups appeared for the same contrasts. These overall trends suggested a degree of flexibility for non-native perception in three of four instances as well as a significant pair-wise order effect. These overall findings should not minimize the importance of individual differences. Discussion concluded with calls for greater focus on individual differences (also reflected in Bradlow et al., 1997) and greater awareness of individuals' potentials within language learning contexts.