Researcher(s)
- Riley Gates, Linguistics, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Nadya Pincus, Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences, University of Delaware
Abstract
Pronunciation is essential when learning a second language, and before one can master a new language, one must start with the very basics, building a strong foundational knowledge of the sounds of said language. The purpose of this research project was to compare vowel spaces of native and non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese in an attempt to measure any change of vowel space that occurs while one learns a second language. At the beginning of the process of learning a new language, one’s pronunciation will likely be less than accurate, but as they gain exposure and practice more, their pronunciation gets better. This improvement should include the proper articulation of vowels, the ultimate goal of this project was to understand if their vowel space will change and shift to better match that of a native speaker. My research was conducted by recording three different groups of people, Native speakers of Mandarin, Non-native speakers of Mandarin who have studied Mandarin, and finally, Non-native speakers of Mandarin who have never studied Mandarin. Each was asked to read aloud sentences, containing the vowels I wanted to study, and then analyzed the spectrograms of the speech using an analysis program (praat), Finally,I was then able to identify where the vowels were being produced in the mouth for each group and compare the articulations. My results found that The English speakers’ vowel articulation changed when they spoke a second language. For example, the “u” sound when used in English was towards the front of the mouth, and when the same vowel sound was used by the speaker in a Chinese context, it was produced more towards the back, better matching the native Chinese speakers’ articulation. More research is needed to derive any solid conclusions, and a larger sample size would be massively beneficial as to help minimize outside factors.