Acquisition Of Plosives By English Learners From The Corridor Area Of Voiced Sounds

Plosives are found in languages across the world.It is the sole phonetic category shared by all languages,and plosives can be used to reflect the features of consonants.Although there are several studies on the plosive acquisition of Chinese learners,practically all of the participants are Chinese Putonghua speakers or speak dialects with similar plosive systems to Putonghua.Moreover,the majority of studies concentrate on the acoustic observation of plosive acquisition,with a few examining the interaction between production and perception in plosive acquisition.In this study,Voice Onset Time(VOT)is used as a main acoustic parameter to investigate the acquisition of plosives produced by 22 English learners from the Corridor Area of Voiced Sounds.Given the participants’ complicated native language backgrounds,they are both proficient in Putonghua and native language dialects.A series of speech production and perception experiments have been designed to investigate the learners’ acquisition state and plosive acquisition mechanisms.The results indicate that while the participants’ English plosive production is comparable to that of native speakers,there are slight differences in the particular VOT range and voiceness of the word-initial plosives.Participants’ perceptions of plosives in dialects are irregular,whereas their perceptions of plosives in Putonghua and English are strongly synchronized.The study shows that for English learners in the Corridor Area of Voiced Sounds,the voiced plosives in the native dialects have a marginal effect on the acquisition of voiced sounds,with Putonghua exerting the greatest impact on acquisition.The relationship between speech perception and speech production is complicated,and perception takes precedence over production.This study takes into account the internal diversity of Chinese learners and the complexities of their native language backgrounds,thus contributing to the knowledge base regarding Chinese learners’ English phonology acquisition and providing empirical evidence for both the Speech Learning Model(SLM)and the Perceptual Assimilation Model(PAM).The conclusion drawn in this study can serve as a theoretical reference for developing more targeted English teaching tactics and more particular teaching schemes in terms of plosive acquisition in this area.