Taiwanese SLA Learners’ Acquisition of English Fricatives and Affricates

• Main Authors: Hui-LingYang, 楊惠玲
• Other Authors: Raung-Fu Chung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/12968406549690705221

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 100 === The purpose of this study is to discover which SLA theory can best explain the English learning situation in Taiwan, and to know whether an additional four or extra eight years of English learning experience at school can improve English learners’ pronunciation capacity or not. Thirty-six subjects participate in this study and are divided into four groups: six English native speakers, ten junior high school students, ten senior high school students, and ten university students. These participants produce words with the following six fricatives and affricates, /θ/,/ð/,/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/,and /ʃ/, separately under the following four phonological environments: at the coda, as an onset before /ɚ/, as an onset before /a/, and as an onset before /i/. This study is based on acoustic phonology, and these fricatives are measured by 1) the peak of fricative frequency and 2) the F2 of CV transient. The resulting data are analyzed with SPSS: Independent samples t-tests to see whether the non-English native-speaker groups perform significantly differently from the English native-speaker group. The results of this study support the basis of the Speech Learning Model (SLM), and suggest that the additional four or eight years of English learning experience in a non L2 spoken country is not one of the factors that can improve the production of L2 similar sounds. Moreover, this study has five other findings. 1) Taiwanese students are used to placing the tips of their tongues in a more front location than the English native speakers in the production of /ʒ/,/θ/,/ð/,/tʃ/,/dʒ/, and /ʃ/. 2) The experienced English learners cannot pronounce L2 similar phonemes identically with English native speakers no matter how long they have learned the target language if they have learned it in a non-English speaking country. 3) Some English native speakers view /dʒ/ and /ʒ/ as allophones. 4) The English learning experience before junior high schools is enough for English learners to pronounce English similar sounds close to English native speakers. 5) The L2 learning environment has a significant influence on pronunciation.