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Part of
English Pronunciation Instruction: Research-based insights
Edited by Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova, Alice Henderson and Jonás Fouz-González
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 19] 2021
► pp. 279–302

Chapter 12
Vowel reduction in English grammatical words by Macedonian EFL learners

| Ss. Cyril and Methodius University , Skopje

Research into L2 vowel reduction shows that learners find this phenomenon challenging to acquire, most likely due to their inability to differentiate between stressed and unstressed syllables. Consequently, their L2 speech is characterised by overuse of strong forms, which may be detrimental to intelligibility. This study explores vowel reduction in grammatical words by Macedonian learners of English (N = 121). Participants at B1, B2 and C1 proficiency levels completed 25 tasks which elicited target words in spontaneous speech. The results reveal that learners predominantly use strong forms. Moreover, weak form use is significantly associated with learners’ proficiency level and formal pronunciation training, but not with word category. It was also observed that words with certain strong vowels are more frequently reduced.

Keywords: vowel reduction, strong forms, weak forms, grammatical words, language proficiency, pronunciation training
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Previous research studies on vowel reduction
  • The current study
    • Research questions
  • Research methodology
    • Participants
    • Stimuli
    • Procedure
  • Data analysis
    • Frequency of weak form use
    • Weak form use across proficiency levels
    • Weak forms use across word categories
    • Weak forms use across trained and untrained groups
    • Frequency of weak forms use across strong vowels
  • Discussion
    • Pedagogical implications
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.19.12duc
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