The Production of English Fricatives by Native Mandarin Speakers

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Zeng, Xiaozhen

• Learners of English may be influenced by the sounds of their mother tongue when speaking English. This study analyzes the acoustic features of English fricatives, such as the s sound in 'hiss', produced by native Mandarin speakers and native English speakers. This study also investigated how speaker groups differ and discussed the effects of individual variations on acquiring native-like pronunciation, and how their attitude toward second language acquisition factors may affect pronunciation. Analysis revealed native Mandarin speakers can learn and produce English fricatives effectively and are more variable in place of articulation compared to their native English-speaking peers. Participants who rated themselves as highly motivated are more likely to be less satisfied with their pronunciation but produced fricatives less differently than native English speakers.

• Date created

  2023-05-16

• Subjects / Keywords

  • speech production
  • Mandarin Chinese
  • English
  • L2 English
  • L1 Mandarin
  • second language acquisition
  • acoustic analysis

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-579d-4k75

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International