Comparing the perceptual training effects on the perception and production of English high-front and high-back vowel contrasts by Cantonese ESL learners

This study investigated the effects of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) in training both the perception and production of English highfront vowels /ɪ/-/iː/ and high-back vowels /ʊ/-/uː/ by Cantonese ESL learners. Results showed that the HVPT was generally effective in improving the subjects’ perception of the two vowel pairs and perceptual learning could generalize to new words and new speakers and be transferred to the production domain, but more perception and production improvement could be observed in the high-front vowel pair than the high-back one. Acoustic analysis also showed that although the subjects tended to exaggerate the vowel duration, the F1 and F2 values also changed, but more was observed in the high-front vowel pair. This is not consistent with SLM as Cantonese has vowels which are similar with the two target L2 vowel pairs but the extent of learning of both target vowel pairs was different.