Does Learning English Vowels Aid the Perception of English Stress for Learners with Small Vowel Inventory Background?

Allehyani, M., Smith, R. and Cohen, C. (2023) Does Learning English Vowels Aid the Perception of English Stress for Learners with Small Vowel Inventory Background? In: Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic, 7-11 August 2023, pp. 337-341. ISBN 9788090811423

Abstract

This study is part of a larger longitudinal project investigating the relationship between acquiring English vowel quality and acquiring English stress by Arabic learners of English. In this paper, two experiments were conducted to test 1) learners’ ability in perceiving vowel contrasts of different difficulty levels, and 2) the relationship between the ability identify vowels and the ability to perceive stress placement in disyllabic nonsense words. An analysis using Signal Detection Theory revealed that all dialect groups were less sensitive to the quality of vowels in the difficult pairs---i.e., pairs distinguished by contrasts absent in the native Arabic dialects--- relative to medium and simple pairs. Further, the participants' d-prime scores in vowel identification and stress placement were positively correlated. These findings suggest that acquisition of English stress patterns may benefit from learners' ability to perceive vowel contrasts.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cohen, Dr Clara and ALLEHYANI, MANAL Abdullah S and Smith, Dr Rachel
• Authors: Allehyani, M., Smith, R., and Cohen, C.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• ISSN: 2412-0669
• ISBN: 9788090811423

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