Taiwanese EFL Learners' Perception of English Word Stress

Abstract

本篇論文探討在音高語音訊號被操弄的狀況下，台灣英語學習者如何感知英語字重音對比（如：fércept vs. fercépt）。五十八位英語學習者參與兩個強制性選擇的感知實驗，其任務是指出所聽取的音檔所對應的假字圖片為何。其中，假字的重音節以兩種語調方式呈現：（i）較高的音高或（ii）低升的音高曲線。結果顯示，台灣英語學習者對以「較高的音高」的語音線索來呈現的重音沒有感知的困難，但對用「低升的音高曲線」來呈現的重音卻有極大的感知困難。此外，錯誤分析顯示初階學習者主要仰賴在「上揚音高」的語音訊號來猜測重音節所在，這有可能是來自母語聲調系統的影響或是第二語言學習者重音感知的共通傾向。相對地，高階學習者則使用詞類做為猜測重音所在的策略，顯示他們在該中介語發展階段已具有「聲調不同於重音」的音韻知覺。

This paper investigates how Taiwanese EFL learners perceive non-word pairs which differ only in the location of stress (e.g., fércept vs. fercépt) when the phoneticcue of pitch is manipulated. Fifty-eight Taiwanese EFL learners participated in two forced choice perceptual experiments, in which they were asked to identify a perceived non-word when its stressed syllable was signified either (i) by higher pitch or (ii) by a low rising tonal contour. The results show that, while these L2 learners had little difficulty in perceiving stress when the stress was signified by higher pitch, they all had great difficulty in doing so when the stress was signified by the low rising tonal contour. In addition, analyses of their errors show that less experienced learners relied mainly on higher pitch or rising pitch contour in guessing the position of stress, which may indicate a persistent effect of their L1 tonal system or L2 learners' universal tendency of perceiving stress, while more experienced learners referred to the information of morpho-syntactic categories as a strategy in guessing the position of stress, suggesting their phonological awareness of the difference between lexical tone and lexical stress at their developmental stage.