Perception and categorisation of vowels in German and English by Chinese university learners

Thesis

Accurate vowel perception is essential for effective communication and is a fundamental aspect of language learning. Vowels are important in any language because they carry important phonetic and phonological information that is essential for distinguishing between words and meanings. This research highlights the pivotal role of acoustic cues - particularly duration and formant cues - in the perception of vowels. It also explores how different factors, such as the learning environment and prior phonetic training, affect vowel perception. Understanding how learners perceive vowels and identifying the factors that influence them is crucial for improving communication skills and refining teaching methods. This dissertation examines the perceptual patterns of Chinese learners of German and/or English, focusing on their responses to English and German vowel categorisation and discrimination in three perceptual tasks. The study takes into account various background factors, including multilingualism, language proficiency, learning environment, and prior knowledge of phonetics and phonology, to explore possible correlations between learners' language learning backgrounds and their vowel perception abilities. The results of these tasks highlight the importance of both durational and formant cues in vowel perception. However, they also reveal a notable preference for durational cues among learners. The results also show that phonetic training and immersive language environments significantly increase learners' sensitivity to subtle variations in vowel duration and formant properties. Based on these insights, the dissertation argues for tailoring language teaching to learners' backgrounds. This approach involves exploiting strengths such as the processing of durational cues and incorporating explicit phonetic training and immersive learning experiences into language curricula. Such adaptations are proposed to optimise language learning and teaching by facilitating the more effective acquisition of the phonetic skills that are crucial for multilingual communication.

Authors: Yihan, L

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-6rejbawxb
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: language learning; ALSLA; ALSLA2024; acoustic xues; vowel perception; quantitative research
• Subjects: Vowels; Applied linguistics; Second language acquisition; Quantitative research