THE ACQUISITION OF PHONETICS: FACTORS AFFECTING THE DISCRIMINATION

OF ENGLISH VOWELS

Jasone Ce11oz lragui M" Luisa Ca reía Lewmberri

UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAÍS VASCO

Abstract This paper focuses 011 the acquisition of English Phonetics by E11glish Philology swdents at the University of the Bosque Cotmtl): lt reports the results of <m ear training program on the discri­millation of English vowels and explores the effect of lcmguage proficiency a!l(/ attitudi11al a11d aptillldinai eleme11ts 011 the perceptio11 of E11giish voweis.

l . Introduction

Rescarch in thc acquisition of Phonctics can contribute both to thc knowlcdgc of languagc lcarning processcs and 10 lhc 1caching of forcign languagcs. Pronuncialion is onc of thc mosl noli­ccablc linguislic clcmcnls in spcakcrs' sccond languagc production and a crucial clcmcnt in spccch comprehension. Rcsearch 011 lhc acquisi­tiol1 of English sounds and parlicularly. on English vowcls is espccially rclcvant for nalive

spcakcrs of Spanish. Spanish speakers who learn English 1cnd 10 be awarc of lhc difficult 1ask of lcarning 1hc English phonological system, sincc it includcs a larger numbcr of vowcls lhan that of thcir firsl language (Zucngler, 1988).

Thc acquisilion of Phonctics and thc production of spcech sounds havc bccn rclatcd 10 severa! factors (Thompson, 1991 ). For cxamplc, affccti­vc variables (molivation. idcntification with thc largct community, integrativcncss) have been found 10 cxcrt somc int1uc11ce 011 English pro­nuncialion (Purccll & Suler, 1980). Olhcr prc­dictors of phonctic dcvclopmcnt are closer to inna1c abilitics: 1hc ability lo mimic, musical abi­lily or lhe abilily to dctect accents ( eufeld, 1979, 1988). Exposure 10 1hc sccond la11guagc and formal lraining llave also been reporlcd lo affccl 1hc acquisilion of Pho11c1ics (Ficge. 1988). Olher sludics havc associalcd pronuncialion wilh individual characlerislics such as sex, per-

Pérez Guerra, Javier, M. Teresa Caneda Cabrera. Marta Dahlgren, Teresa Fernández-Colmeiro and Eduardo J. Vareta Bravo eds. ( 1996). Proceedíngs of the X!Xth lntemational Conference of AEDEAN. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo.

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Procccdlngs of rhe XIXrh lnrcrn.lrton,!l Conrercncc of A COCAN

sonality and ernpathy (Thompson. 1991 ). Pronuncia! ion is also one of the rnost discusscd issues when examining the effect of age on second language acquisition (Singleton, 1989).

Spccch comprehension is a cornplcx proeess involving both linguistic and non-linguistic inforrnation. Even though comprehension does not only depend on diserimination. the corree! discrirnination of speeeh sounds eertainly eontri­butes to language cornprehension. Corree! dis­crimination is also very likely to affect pronun­ciation in a second language. Studies on Phonetic discrirnination and on the discrimina­tion of English vowels are necessary in English Philology both for their application to Phonetics courses and for the students' professional deve­loprnent. The study presented here foeuses on the discrirnination of English vowels by English Philology students. The objectives of the study were the following: i) To examine sorne of the factors that have been associated with the acqui­sition of Phonetics: the effect of tmining, the stu­dents' exposure to English. their dcsire to aequi­re a native aceent, their musical ability, their abi­lity to detect accents and their overall proli­eiency in English; ii) To idcntify sorne elements whieh can affeet the discrimination of English vowels in the context of English Philology Studies.

2. Method

Subjects. 52 English Philology students at the University of the Basque Country (UPY/EHU) participated in this study. All the students (6 male and 46 fernale) wcre in their lirst year of English Philology and were enrolled in the cour­se 'English Phonctics'. 78.8% ( =41) of the subjeets had Spanish as their tirst language and 19.2% ( =10) had Basque or Basque and Spanish as their lirst languages.

Testing and training proeedure. The partici­pants lillcd in a questionnaire and were given a test of phonetic discrimination in October 1993, two weeks after the course had started. The pho­netic discrimination test was administcred to the same subjccts once again at the end of the cour­se, in Fcbnwy 1994.

The students received sorne training in vowcl discrirnination between the lirst and the sccond discrimination tests. They devoted approxima­tcly 15 hours to ear training as part of their 60 hour Phonetics course. The ear training sessions included aura! exercises on English vowels and consonants based on Phonetics coursebooks (Girnson, 1975; Roach, 1985).

The questionnairc had severa! scctions. First. thc students provided some general information (sex. agc. lirst languagc) and some inforrnation about thcir exposure to English (year in whieh they startcd to lcarn English, visits to English spcaking countries, prívate lessons, English variety they have bccn exposed to). The sccond scction of thc qucstionnaire containcd items about thcir own pcrccption of thcir proticiency in English (listening. speaking, rcading and wri ­ting). Thc third section of the questionnaire includcd four Likcrt formal itcms (ranging from 1 slrongly agree !O 1 sJrongly disagree) so as to rncasure both the subjects ' desire to acquire a native aceent and their accent discrimination ability and musical car.

The phonetic discrirnination tests includcd 38 stirnuli which consiste<! of two tokens of 19 RP vowels and diphthongs, that is, all the RP vowels and diphthongs except the schwa. The st imuli had been produced by a native speaker of English and the students had to listen to a tape and then try to identify the sound they heard with one from a list including 19 vowel symbols. The data presented in this paper correspond to the total nurnbcr of corree! questions on each of the two phonetie discrimination tests (min=O; max=38). Once the questionnaires were correc­ted, the data werc reeorded and the SPSS pro­gram was used for the analyses.

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3. Results

The results will be presented as related to the two objectives of the study. First the informa­tion relative to the possible effect of training, learners' exposure to English, their proficiency in English, their desire to acquire a native pro­nunciation and other abilities will be presen­te<!. Then the influence of different factors on

Procccdlngs of thc X/Xth lnrcmatfoni!l Confcrcncc of AEDE.AN

the second discrimination test will be exami­ned.

Exposurc, prolicicncy, dcsire to acquire a native accent and other abilitics. Whcn the results of the two diserimination tests wcre com­pared it was found that the scores (max=38) on the second test (x=29.53; S.D.=4.0 1) were 7 points higher than the scores on the tirst test (x=22.72; S.D.=4.97). These results indicatc that the subjects' discrimination of English vowels improved during thc tra1mng prograrn. Regarding the students' exposure to English it was found that most subjects. 73.1% (1 =38) started to lcarn English in thc sixth grade and 72% ( =36) had attended prívate elasses of English. More than half of thc students (58%) had livcd in English speaking countries in ordcr to lcarn English and thc rnost common varicty of English they had been cxposed to was British English (88.5%). As far as the studcnts' proti­ciency in English is concerncd, their perception of their general proficiency in English was 25.03 (min=O; max=40) and they reportcd the highcst seo re for rcading (6.58; max= 1 0) and thc lowcst for speaking (5.54; max= 1 0). Whcn thcir pcr­ccption of thcir own promlnciation. vocabulary and grammar was considercd, participants gavc thc highest score to grammar (6.46; max= 1 0) and the lowest to pronunciation (5.40; max= 1 0). Thc data on desirc to acquirc a native pronuncia­tion and othcr abilitics are prcsented in table l.

TABLEI

OESIRE TO ACOU1RE A NAnVE PROIIUNCIAnON ANO OTHER ABILmES

X (max=7) s.o. OESIRE NATIVE PRONUNCIATION

\'nSH RP ACCENT 5.92 1.10 1'/ISH NATIVE PRONUNCIATION 6.38 1.15 l'nSH TO SOUNO BRITISH 5.34 1.76 FOREIGNERS NATIVE PRONUNCIATION 6.()l 1.61

OTHER ABIUTIES

MUSICAlEAR 4.07 1.66 GOOO AT ACCENTS 5.13 1.44

lt can be observed that the partieipants wish to aequirc a native accent and think that it is good for foreigncrs to acquire a native pronunciation.

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They al so wish to sound British and they wish to acquire an RP accent although the scores are slightly lower for these two items. The scores on other abilities that have somctimes bcen related to phonetic discrimination are lower. particu­larly for musical ear.

Variables affccting thc discrimination of English vowcls. A regrcssion analysis (stepwi­se) was carric<! out in order to check the innuen­ce that thc ditfercnt variables had on the sceond test of phonctic discrimination. Thc rcsults of this analysis are represcntcd in tablc 11.

TABLE II

PREOICTORS OF OISCRII.UtiAnONTEST 2: I.IULnPLE REGRESSIOH

Variable Be la ~ F S

TEST 1 .58 -~ 18.29 .00 COUNTRY 29 .38 13.88 .01 OESIRE 2S .46 11.73 .03

Table 11 includcs those variables which signifi­cantly predict the scorcs on thc sccond discrimi­nation test. Thc tirst variable entered on step numbcr one was thc grade obtained in thc first discrirnination test, which cxplained a high pro­portian of variance, 30% (S=.OO). Thc next variable to cnter thc cquation was 'country', that is, whcther thc subjccts had lived in an Engli h spcaking country or not. Thc contribution of this sccond variable was also significant (.01). Thcsc two variables together (test 1 and country) cxplaincd 39% of thc variance. The last variable to entcr thc cquation was the dcsire to acquire a native pronunciation. This variable contributed significantly (.03) to thc sccond discrirnination test and the total pcrcentagc of explaincd varían­ce was 46%. Thc rest of thc variables, pcrception of English proticicncy, othcr abilities and cxpo­sure to English by attending private lessons, did not cntcr thc cquation. That mcans that thcy did not contribute to the sccond discrimination test in a significan! way.

Thc regrcssion analysis indicates that the thrce variables in tablc 11 are good predictors of vowel discrimination. Thcrcfore, high scores on the first discrimination test. visits to English spca­king countries and thc dcsire to acquirc a nativc

f'rocccc11ngs of the X/Xrh Jncern<Hional Confcrcnce of AEDEAN

acccnt are associatcd with highcr scorcs on thc sccond discrimination test. Thc tirst discrimina­tion test is an cxccllcnt prcdictor of thc sccond test but thc othcr two variables in tablc 11 also contributcd a significan! portion of variancc to thc sccond discrimination test. Thc rcst of thc variables accountcd for hardly any variancc and did not conlributc to lhc sccond discrimination test. Thc pcrception of English proficicncy was largcly unrclatcd to thc discriminalion scorcs

and thc influcncc of cxposurc by attcnding prí­vate lcssons and othcr abilitics wcrc nol signi­fican! cilhcr.

4. Discussion

This sludy prcscnts obvious limilations duc to thc small samplc, thc indircct mcasurcs of languagc proficicncy and abi lity. and thc inclusion of only a small numbcr of thc variables rclatcd to thc acquisilion of Phonctics. 1 cverthclcss, somc conclusions can be drawn from this study. Thc discrimi­nation of English vowcls is affcctcd by a largc numbcr of factors and this cxplains that trai ning is an importan! factor bul nol the only onc involved in this proccss.

Thc posi t ivc cffcct of car training on thc dis­crimination of English vowcls confirms prc­vious rcports (Ncufcld, 1988) and justify thc uscfulncss of phonclic lraining. Thc study also confirms the importan! role of cxposure and particularly, of living in an English spc­aking country (Ficgc, 1988; Monroy, 1992). Most studcnts dcsirc lo acquirc a nalivc acccnt and this dcsire positivcly influcnccs vowcl discriminalion. This finding confirms l hc rc lcvancc of affcctivc factors as thc dcsi­rc to learn has al so bccn rccognizcd as onc of thc componenls of motivation in othcr arcas of sccond languagc lcarni ng (Gardncr, 1985). evcrthclcss this study <loes nol con­firm cithcr the cffcct of more innatc abilitics (musical car or lhc abilily lo dc1cc1 acccnts) or lhal of overall languagc proficicncy (Thompson, 1991 ).

Evcn lhough lhis study confirms thc positivc cffcct of training and othcr factors on thc

discrimination of English vowcls severa! arcas can bcncfit from future rcscarch. Thc ability to discriminatc English vowcls has to be cxamined as rclated to the ability to pro­nouncc these vowcls. Moreovcr, thc analysis of both discrimination and production in connected specch is another arca that nceds attention (Soler, 1990). The devclopment and evaluation of di ffercnt teaching stratc­gies both for discrimination and production will also throw somc light on research in thc acquisition of Phonctics.

Acknowlcdgcmcnts

This study was supportcd by a grant from thc Univcrsity of thc f3asquc Country, Vicerrectorado de Investigación, no 105.130-I-IA 136/94

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