Forming New Vowel Categories in Second Language Speech: The Case of Polish Learners' Production of English /I/ and /e/

Arkadiusz Rojczyk

doi:10.2478/v10015-010-0008-3

Authors

Arkadiusz Rojczyk University of Silesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/v10015-010-0008-3

Keywords:

second language speech, vowel, L2 learning, pronunciation, acoustic analysis

Abstract

The paper concentrates on formation of L2 English vowel categories in the speech of Polish learners. More specifically, it compares distribution of two English categories - /I/ and /e/ relative to neighbouring Polish vowels. 43 participants recorded Polish and English vowels in a /bVt/ context. First two formants were measured at a vowel midpoint and plotted on a vowel plane. The results reveal that while a separate /I/ category is formed fairly effectively in Polish learners pronunciation of English, a category of /e/ is almost completely subsumed by a Polish vowel /ϵ/

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