Ho Yan Yeung - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Ho Yan Yeung
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007
The present study investigated how the vowel system of the first language (Cantonese) affects the... more The present study investigated how the vowel system of the first language (Cantonese) affects the acquisition of vowels of a second language. Forty native Cantonese-speaking adults (20 males and 20 females), with ages between 19 years 4 months and 26 years 10 months were recruited. Data from the first and second formant frequencies indicated that, for both female and male speakers, production of American English vowels was influenced by the Cantonese vowel system. This is also true even for those English vowels that were found in Cantonese. The perceptual ability in identifying the English vowels was also carried out to account for the deviated production of American English. It is found that perceptual and production abilities are related. Vowels of Hong 3 Vowels of Hong Kong English: from an acoustic perspective Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese. It is the first language spoken by the people residing mainly in the southern China including Hong Kong. In Hong Kong most of the native speakers of Cantonese speak English as their second language. Although most children in Hong Kong start to learn to speak English as early as in the kindergarten, English spoken by native Cantonese speaking Hong Kong people is usually judged to be heavily accented. Accent is defined as non-native like pronunciation (e.g. Markham, 1997; Major, 2001; Flege, Bohn, & Jang, 1997). Inaccurate production of English vowels is one of the major sources of accent (Markham, 1997).
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007
The present study investigated how the vowel system of the first language (Cantonese) affects the... more The present study investigated how the vowel system of the first language (Cantonese) affects the acquisition of vowels of a second language. Forty native Cantonese-speaking adults (20 males and 20 females), with ages between 19 years 4 months and 26 years 10 months were recruited. Data from the first and second formant frequencies indicated that, for both female and male speakers, production of American English vowels was influenced by the Cantonese vowel system. This is also true even for those English vowels that were found in Cantonese. The perceptual ability in identifying the English vowels was also carried out to account for the deviated production of American English. It is found that perceptual and production abilities are related. Vowels of Hong 3 Vowels of Hong Kong English: from an acoustic perspective Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese. It is the first language spoken by the people residing mainly in the southern China including Hong Kong. In Hong Kong most of the native speakers of Cantonese speak English as their second language. Although most children in Hong Kong start to learn to speak English as early as in the kindergarten, English spoken by native Cantonese speaking Hong Kong people is usually judged to be heavily accented. Accent is defined as non-native like pronunciation (e.g. Markham, 1997; Major, 2001; Flege, Bohn, & Jang, 1997). Inaccurate production of English vowels is one of the major sources of accent (Markham, 1997).