A Comparative Analysis Of Vowel Identification In Phonetically Trained And Untrained Learners Across Durational Manipulations

Abstract: The current study examined vowel identification among 72 phonetically trained and untrained Algerian students of English enrolled in Master 2 English Language and Letters and Mathematics courses, respectively, at Mentouri University of Constantine. The study used a multiple alternative forced choice (m-AFC) classification test to assess participants’ identification rates of isolated RP prototypic vowels across varying temporal manipulations. It was hypothesised that phonetically trained and untrained participants would use acoustic features of examined vowels differently to identify vowels, with phonetically trained participants showing higher identification rates compared to untrained ones. Analysis of results demonstrated that the use of temporal and spectral features of vowels varied non-significantly across phonetically trained and untrained participants. The results show that vowel identification may be subject to specific speech mechanisms and non-significantly affected by phonetic training, suggesting the limited role of explicit phonetic instruction in vowel perception among L2 learners and the need for more effective teaching methods.  Keywords: vowel identification rate, acoustic, durational manipulations, phonetically trained, untrained