title: English vowel identification and vowel formant discrimination by native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners: The effect of vowel duration dependence.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between English vowel identification and English vowel formant discrimination for native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners. The identification of 12 English vowels was measured with the duration cue preserved or removed. The thresholds of vowel formant discrimination on the F2 of two English vowels,/Λ/and/i/, were also estimated using an adaptive-tracking procedure. Native Mandarin Chinese-speaking listeners showed significantly higher thresholds of vowel formant discrimination and lower identification scores than native English-speaking listeners. The duration effect on English vowel identification was similar between native Mandarin Chinese- and native English-speaking listeners. Moreover, regardless of listeners' language background, vowel identification was significantly correlated with vowel formant discrimination for the listeners who were less dependent on duration cues, whereas the correlation between vowel identification and vowel formant discrimination was not significant for the listeners who were highly dependent on duration cues. This study revealed individual variability in using multiple acoustic cues to identify English vowels for both native and non-native listeners.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China; National Innovation Center for Assessment of Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China; National Innovation Center for Assessment of Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China. Electronic address: taosha@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China; National Innovation Center for Assessment of Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China; National Innovation Center for Assessment of Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1100, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1100, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: changliu@utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D014833:Voice Quality; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: English vowel identification; Native and non-native listeners; Vowel duration; Vowel formant discrimination