中國學生在英文鬆緊母音上發音問題之研究

Chinese students' performance in the pronunciation of English tense and lax vowels

鄧欣怡(Hsin-yi Teng)

指導教授 ： 李櫻博士

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系在職進修碩士班/碩士(2002年)

摘要

摘 要
本研究旨在探討中國學生在英文鬆緊母音（tense and lax vowels）上的表現。中國學生因為母語之語音系統與英語語音系統在語音區別特徵（distinctive feature）上不同，因此在學習英語發音時，容易忽略在母音之語音系統中所缺乏的發音特徵。
本研究以實驗方式實際進行五十位中國學生在英文鬆緊母音上表現之觀察。實驗所使用之朗讀文本取材自國中英文第三冊，包含二十個單字、五句單句以及一篇短段落。朗讀文本的設計以兩個面向為主軸：一為語音環境（phonetic environment）；一為出現環境的大小（the scope of the task）。
經過統計分析的資料顯示這兩個面向確實對中國學生在英文鬆緊母音之表現上有顯著影響。此外。此二者間亦存在有相關性。不過這兩個因素對受試者在緊母音及鬆母音表現上的影響恰恰是相反的。
除了這兩個因素以外，尚有其他原因左右受試者的表現，如母語的音位限制（phonotactic constraint），雙母音的表現不完全（lack of diphthongization），重音的顯著性（prominence of stress），刪除（deletion），以及對單字發音的認知錯誤（false recognition of the word’s original pronunciation）。
本研究的最後一個章節並提供教學上的建議及未來進一步研究可行的方向。

關鍵字

鬆緊母音 ； 區別特徵 ； 語音環境 ； 音位限制 ； 雙母音不完全 ； 刪除 ； 重音的顯著性 ； HASH(0xc21a51c)

並列摘要

Abstract
This study investigates Chinese subjects’ performance in the pronunciation of eight English tense and lax vowels, namely, /i/ and /0/, /e/ and /G/, /u/ and /U/, as well as /o/ and /C/.
An empirical experiment is conducted to collect real data from fifty Chinese subjects. The instrument applied is an oral reading text, including a wordlist containing twenty single words, five sentences, and a short passage. The design of the text is based on two major dimensions: one is the phonetic environment, and the other is the scope of the task.
Data collected from the investigation shows that the phonetic environment and the scope of the task have significant impacts on the subjects’ error rates of the eight vowels. What is more, a correlation is also observed between the two factors. Nevertheless, the effects these two dimensions have on the four tense vowels are contrary to the effects they have on the four lax vowels.
In addition to the phonetic environment and the size of the task, other factors are perceived to influence the subjects’ performance of the eight vowels, such as phonotactic constraint from L1, lack of diphthongization, prominence of stress, deletion, and subjects’ false recognition of the word’s original pronunciation.
Lastly, pedagogical implications and suggestion for further research are provided in the final chapter of this study.

並列關鍵字

tense and lax vowels ； distincitve feature ； phonetic environment ； scope of the task ； phonotactic constraint ； lack of diphthongization ； deletion ； prominence of stress

參考文獻

Castle, W. E. (1964). The effect of selective narrow-band filtering on the perception of certain English vowels. Hague: Mouton.

Celce-Murcia, M., Briton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chung, R.-F. (1991). Phonological knowledge in English teaching. Proceedings of the English conference on English teaching and learning in the Republic of China, 7, 313-325.

Cochran, A., & Lin, Y. K. (1957). English pronunciation for Chinese students. Taipei, Taiwan: Book World.

Cohen, A. (1965). The phonemes of English: a phonemic study of the vowels and consonants of standard English. Hague: M. Nijhoff.