Vowel variation in advanced Polish learners of English (original) (raw)

English TRAP vowel in advanced Polish learners: Variation and system typology

The productions of English TRAP, DRESS and STRUT vowels are analysed acoustically in advanced Polish learners of English in an EFL setting. TRAP is shown to be less well-defined than the other two vowels, presumably due to partially fossilised "assimilation" to the corresponding Polish vowels /a/ and /ɛ/. There is considerable inter speaker variation in the distribution of TRAP tokens , with four main configurations. Some weak lexical effects are visible, but their origin is unclear. There is a possible effect of affiliation to a specific pronunciation model, British or American.

English vowel perception by Polish advanced learners of English

Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 2018

This article examines English vowel perception by advanced Polish learners of English in a formal classroom setting (i.e., they learnt English as a foreign language in school while living in Poland). The stimuli included 11 English noncewords in bilabial (/bVb/), alveolar (/dVd/) and velar (/gVg/) contexts. The participants, 35 first-year English majors, were examined during the performance of three tasks with English vowels: a categorial discrimination oddity task, an L1 assimilation task (categorization and goodness rating) and a task involving rating the (dis-)similarities between pairs of English vowels. The results showed a variety of assimilation types according to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and the expected performance in a discrimination task. The more difficult it was to discriminate between two given vowels, the more similar these vowels were judged to be. Vowel contrasts involving height distinctions were easier to discriminate than vowel contrasts with tongue advancement distinctions. The results also revealed that the place of articulation of neighboring consonants had little effect on the perceptibility of the tested English vowels, unlike in the case of lower proficiency learners.Unlike previous results for naïve listeners, the present results for advanced learners showed no adherence to the principles of the Natural Referent Vowel framework. Generally, the perception of English vowels by these Polish advanced learners of English conformed with PAM’s predictions, but differed from vowel perception by naïve listeners and lower-proficiency learners.

Vowel dynamics for Polish learners of English

Vowels in most native varieties of English are characterized by dynamic changes in formant frequencies, an acoustic feature that has been found to be crucial for L1 listeners in vowel identification. By contrast, the acoustic realization of vowels in Polish is characterized by more stable formant patters. This paper presents an acoustic and perceptual study investigating the consequences of these differences for Polish learners of English. Acoustic data reveal that learners at a higher level of proficiency produce more robust formant dynamics. A listening test with L1 English listeners revealed that more dynamic vowel realizations are associated with higher ratings on a scale of foreign accentedness. The cross-language differences may be explained from the perspective of the Onset Prominence model, a theory of phonological representation in which certain 'phonetic details' may be attributed to phonological parameter settings.

Dynamic information for Polish and English vowels in syllable onsets and offsets

Unpublished BA thesis, 2010

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the dynamic information for both English and Polish vowels that is present in syllable onsets and offsets. In order to establish how much dynamic information is needed for correct vowel identification, I have conducted an experiment on vowel perception using a set of modified recordings of Polish and English vowels set in a /d/V/d/ context and tested a group of 3BA IFA students of English and a group of students from various non-linguistic studies. The results where compared to the ones that were originally recorded by Jenkins and Strange in their research (Jenkins, Strange 1999). In the first chapter of my paper I present a short outline of the recent studies on vowel perception, describe the most significant theories and approaches in this field and gather the necessary information that is needed for explaining my experiment. In the second chapter I thoroughly describe the purpose, the stimulus and the procedure of my experiment, as well as my expectations and hypotheses concerning it. In the third and last chapter I present the results of the experiment and discuss upon their possible explanation. Moreover, I also present possible directions for further studies in this field. This paper is very much experiment-oriented and all information has its purpose in defining and explaining the research. Instead of writing a thorough analysis of vowel perception studies, I focused on a specific topic that needs to be addressed. The results of this study will hopefully clarify vowel identification for Poles learning English as a foreign language and compare Polish and English vowel perception.

Insertion of vowels in English syllabic consonantal clusters pronounced by L1 Polish speakers

Open Linguistics

The aim of this study was an attempt to verify whether Polish speakers of English insert a vowel in the word-final clusters containing a consonant and a syllabic /l/ or /n/ due to the L1–L2 transfer. L1 Polish speakers are mostly unaware of the existence of syllabic consonants; hence, they use the Polish phonotactics and articulate a vocalic sound before a final sonorant which is deprived of its syllabicity. This phenomenon was examined among L1 Polish speakers, 1-year students of English studies, and the recording sessions were repeated a year later. Since, over that time, they were instructed with regard to phonetics and phonology but also the overall practical language learning, the results demonstrated the occurrence of the phenomenon of vowel insertion on different levels of advanced command of English. If the vowels were inserted, their quality and length were monitored and analysed. With regard to the English system, pronouncing vowel /ə/ before a syllabic consonant is possib...

Dynamic Targets in the Acquisition of L2 English Vowels

Research in Language, 2016

This paper presents acoustic data on the dynamic properties of the FLEECE and TRAP vowels in the speech of two groups of Polish users of English. Results reveal that the more proficient group users, made up of teachers and professors with professional-level proficiency in English, produce more dramatic patterns of formant movement, reminiscent of native productions, than first year students. It is argued that vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) is an inherent aspect of English phonology, originated in interactions between vowels and neighboring consonants, and later generalized to the vowel system as a whole. By contrast, Polish is a language with a minimal role of VISC. Consequently, successful acquisition of L2 English vowels involves not only the mastery of vowels in F1- F2 space, but also formant trajectories over time.