Taiwan study finds first-language cues shape English vowel hearing and speech

A Taiwan-led study of Mandarin-speaking learners of English finds that prior language experience shapes both how people hear and how they produce unfamiliar speech sounds, Phys.org reported, citing work published in Second Language Research. Researchers examined two English vowel contrasts, beat-bit and bat-bet, which can differ in vowel quality (largely tongue position) and duration. Mandarin-speaking learners did not use the same listening strategy for both pairs. For beat-bit they relied mainly on vowel duration; for bat-bet they relied more on vowel quality. Those listening patterns linked to how clearly learners produced the same contrasts when imitating speech. The team manipulated vowel quality and duration independently in speech stimuli. Participants completed a word-categorization listening task and an imitation task. Results showed a selective perception-production link: stronger use of a given cue in hearing tracked clearer production of that same cue for the matching contrast. The study also reports first-language influence. Mandarin does not use English tense-lax vowel contrasts in the same way, and imitation of ambiguous beat-bit vowels was influenced by a Mandarin-like /i/ sound. Corresponding author Dr. Yu-An Lu of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University said the work addresses how prior language experience shapes perception, representation, and production of speech sounds. The paper lists DOI 10.1177/02676583261461946.