Training Spanish Speakers in the Perception and Production of English Vowels

This thesis investigates the effects of training native speakers of Spanish in the perception and production of the English pairs of vowels /i/-/I/, /u/-/u/, and /a/-/A/ in a regular ESL classroom setting. Thirty-two adult native Spanish speakers, sixteen in the control group and sixteen in the experimental group, participated in the study. The experimental design included a pretest-posttest procedure in order to compare the subject's performance before and after training. Perception was tested using a minimal pair forced choice task including multiple samples of the three pairs of vowels. Production data was provided by reading 15 sentences and a paragraph, all of which contained the target vowel contrasts. Over a three-week training period, the subjects in the experimental group were given instruction on how to identify and produce the English pairs of vowels 111-/I/, /u/- /u/, and /a/-/A/. Their progress was tested through quizzes at the end of each week. No recordings were used during the lessons. The effect of training on perception was demonstrated through a direct comparison between the scores on the pretest and posttest. Analysis reveals a significant improvement (from 60.1% to 83.3%) in the subjects' performance as an effect of training. A mixed design ANOVA with 1 between factor (group) and 2 within factors (vowel and time) shows a significant group x time interaction (p