Chinese EFL Learners’Interlanguage Variation Of The English High Front Vowel [i:] Among Graduate Students In Inner Mongolia

This study investigated the interlanguage variation of English high front vowel [i:] among EFL learners in Inner Mongolia. There were sixteen participants from Inner Mongolia Normal University in the study. All of them are graduate students, eight from the English department and other eight from different non-English departments.Data were collected from four tasks and a perception task:(1) a word list reading,(2) a short storyreading,(3) story retelling and (4) interviews. The main tool used in this study is GOLDVARB X software for data analysis.The result of this study indicated that syllable structure, consonant clusters, speech style, and speech perception were significant to account for accurate production of [i:].Learners had less difficulty in producing English vowel [i:] in the following contexts:in open syllable, in words containing no preceding and following consonant clusters, and in formal speech style.Whereas, closed syllable, words with preceding and following consonant clusters and informal style inhibited the accurate production of English vowel [i:].In addition, as to examinethe participants’attitudes and motivation in English pronunciation revealed that most learners have positive attitudes toward pronunciation learning and some of them learn English for passing various English examinations in schools and others intend to reach a relative proficiency to communicate with native speakers in real life.Regarding the difficulties that participants have confronted during their learning process, they stated that how to discriminate long and short vowels, recognizing accurate stress placement and getting rid of negative influence of their dialects were their main difficulties in pronunciation.In the end, on the pedagogical implications, this study suggested that teachers should introduce the English vowel [i:] first in open syllables then extend to closed ones, and the words with no preceding and following consonant clusters should be taught before the ones containing preceding and following consonant clusters. Formal contexts precede informal ones.The training of perception is necessary for improve English pronunciation.