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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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The present study examined the production of English /i/ and /ɪ/
by 135 native speakers (NSs) of Spanish and Catalan with different
starting ages of foreign language (FL) learning and degree of exposure
to the FL. Subjects (Ss) were foreign language (FL) learners in a formal
learning context within the first language (L1) community. Seven English-speaking
listeners were asked to identify the vowels /i/ and /ɪ/ that
the Ss and a control group of 13 NSs of English produced in the words
tea and it. Results showed that learners' /i/s were identified at
higher frequency rates than their /ɪ/s. As in (Flege et al., 1997), learners'
/ɪ/s differed significantly from NSs' /ɪ/ identification
scores, and were often misidentified as /i/. Differences among age
groups' rate of correct identification for /i/ and /ɪ/ did
not reach significance. Nor did the effect of experience. However,
an improvement in FL learners' production /ɪ/ was observed
along with an increase in exposure to the FL. Overall, the findings
agree with previous research on the production of English /i/ and /ɪ/
as an L2 by Spanish and Catalan NSs and extend them to a FL learning
context.
Bibliographic reference. Fullana-Rivera, Natalia / MacKay, Ian R.A. (2003): "Production of English sounds by EFL learners: the case of /i/ and /ɪ/", In ICPhS-15, 1525-1528.