An Acoustic Study of Production and Perception of English Vowels by Azeri English Learners 1

This study examined the 30 Azeri (AZ) EFL (English as a foreign language) speakers' production and perception of English vowels. Two experiments were carried out: A production test to measure the first two formants of the learners' English vowels, and an identification test with natural stimuli to investigate the L2 (second language) perception of English vowels. In the word list context, the participants read carrier sentences with the target vowels embedded in /hVd/ words. This study although investigated the relationship between the perception and production of English vowels by the Azeri speakers. In production test 11 English monophthongs were produced by male and female participants and the results were compared to Native American (AE) and British English (BR) productions. The production results revealed that the Azeri speakers produced some of the vowels closer to the AE, and some others closer to BR. Azeri speakers had difficulty in both producing and perceiving some English vowels in a native- like fashion. Some inter-gender differences were also found in this research. Importantly, a relationship between vowel perception and production was found because most of the target vowels which were better perceived were also the ones produced more accurately by the L2 learners.