Presentation

Vowel Spaces in Bilingual Haitian American Kindergartners

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Abstract

With the number of English Language Learners (ELL) in the United States, it has become important for communication professionals to understand how speech and language skills develop in this population in order to correctly differentiate a “communication disorder” from a “communication difference.” In an effort to provide information on young ELLs, this study provides an acoustic description of Kreyol and English vowels spoken by monolingual and bilingual Haitian American kindergartners. Ten kindergarteners of Haitian descent produced words containing Kreyol and English vowels in either CV, CVC or CVCV contexts. Their productions were compared to eight non-Haitian children from the same region. The frequencies of the first two formants were extracted at the vowels’ midpoint and compared between three groups: Haitian American monolingual English speakers (HAM), Haitian American bilingual (English/Kreyol) speakers (HAB), and Non-Haitian speakers (NH). Results for Kreyol vowels provide a first-time acoustic description of the Kreyol vowel space. Results for English vowels reveal significant differences in the production of one vowel, /o/, between HAM and HAB speakers. No significant differences in the English vowel spaces of bilingual Haitian American children were observed when compared to vowel spaces of their non-Haitian native counterparts.

How to Cite:

Wallen, S. & Fox, R. A., (2010) “Vowel Spaces in Bilingual Haitian American Kindergartners”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 2(1).