Production and Perception of English Vowels by Second Language Learners

Many language learning models imply a relationship between second language (L2) learners’ production and perception abilities. However, prior studies of the perception-production relationship have relied primarily on transcriptions and native English speaker judgments in assessments of production accuracy; they have not often utilized acoustic measurements such as vowel duration and formant frequencies. This study aims to understand the production and perception relationship through a novel acoustic measure of L2 production. The study focuses on the perceptual and produced distinction between two vowel pairs: /i/-/ɪ/ (as in beat-bit) and /ɛ/-/æ/ (as in bet-bat). The participants were 29 native-speakers of American English, serving as controls, and 33 L2 learners of English from three native-language backgrounds: Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Speakers were asked to identify words produced by native English speakers for the perception task, and produce words shown to them for the production task. The analyses performed allowed for a comparison of the traditional methodology, using native judgments, and the novel methodology, using acoustic data. The novel approach implemented an analysis of acoustic correlates employed by native speakers to distinguish the contrasting vowel sounds. For those L2 learners who employed the same acoustic correlates in their production of the vowel pairs, there was found to be a significant correlation between the speakers’ production and perception accuracy compared to those who did not employ the native-like acoustic correlates. The study provides compelling evidence that production and perception is a bi-directional relationship. By comparing these findings to the traditional approach for researching the perception-production relationship, the study contributes a novel approach to studying L2 acquisition