Abstract
The purpose of this study is to draw a link between code-mixing and foreign accents by analyzing the phonological features of English words spoken in code-mixing from Cantonese-English and Taiwan Mandarin-English. Three phases of data collection were conducted. First, speech samples were collected from YouTube. A code-mixing script was prepared from those samples. Twenty university students from Hong Kong and another twenty from Taiwan were then invited to read the prepared code-mixing script. Their pronunciation of certain keywords was phonologically analyzed in detail. A supplementary acoustic analysis was conducted to further exemplify the effects of code-mixing on English pronunciation. A questionnaire survey was administered to probe participants’ inions about code-mixing and foreign accents. Results showed that both groups tended to produce final consonant deletion, consonant cluster simplification, and /l/ and /n/ conflation. There was no distinction between short and long vowels; a stress pattern was absent and a vowel insertion strategy was used to form re-syllabification. Cantonese students tended to produce final plosives unreleased. The intonation unexpectedly rose at the word's final position. They devoiced alveolar fricatives and a lateral /l/ was realized as a back vowel /Ʊ/ plus velar glide /w/ in syllable codas, all of which was revealed through acoustic analysis. The survey results found that both groups agreed that the higher their English language proficiency, the more they used code-mixing. They were of opinion that utilizing code-mixing during class helped them better understand class content. Copyright © 2013 Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 55-89 |
Journal | English Teaching & Learning |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2013 |
Citation
Chen, H. C. R. (2013). Phonological changes in code-mixing and the effects on foreign accents: A comparative study. English Teaching & Learning, 37(4), 55-89.Keywords
- Second language phonology
- Multilingual society
- Code-maxing
- Alt. title: 語碼混用中的語音變化及其對英語口音的影響