本論文的研究重點主要針對在台灣多語社會環境中，母語是否造成大學生對英文捲舌音的發音困難及何種社會因素影響捲舌音的習得。本研究採用拉波夫（William Labov）的社會語言面談法（Labovian Paradigm），收集62位大學生的語音資料及問卷，並使用統計軟體「SPSS 11.5」進行量化分析。研究結果顯示，受訪者的國語捲舌音在不同的性別、父親族群及母親教育程度等社會因素下表現出顯著差異性，而其英語捲舌音則由於不同居住地區有顯著的差異。雖然不同族群受訪者在國語及英語捲舌音上的表現無顯著差異，但單就國語及英語捲舌音的表現而論，兩個語言之間的表現呈現顯著的正相關性。藉由本研究結果，無論是教育者或學習者，在發音習得時應多注意母語環境的影響，而教師及課程設計者也能針對不同社會背景的學習者因材施教，以達到更佳的學習效果。

This study is aimed at finding out if the difficulty in English retroflex acquisition is affected by source language and what social factors can influence retroflexion learning in the multi-lingual environments in Taiwan. By adopting Labovian Paradigm, 62 students from a university in northern Taiwan participated in our study. We adopted SPSS 11.5 in quantitative analysis with Independent Sample t-test, Pearson Product Correlation, and One-way ANOVA. The results indicate that there were significant differences in Mandarin retroflexion among different groups categorized by sex, fathers’ ethnic groups, mothers’ educational levels, and in English retroflex sounds according to different residency areas. We found that there were no significant differences in both Mandarin and English retroflex sounds between the groups of native and non-native speakers of Mandarin. Nevertheless, their linguistic performance in both languages still showed positive correlations significantly. From our study, special attention to social background of learners should be paid by educators, curriculum designers, and also learners themselves in pronunciation acquisition for having better performance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Acknowledgements	i
Chinese Abstract	ii
English Abstract	iii
Table of Contents	iv
List of Tables	vi
List of Figures	viii


Chapter One INTRODUCTION	1
1.1 EFL Learners in Multi-lingual Environments in Taiwan 1
1.1.1 Historical Sketch of Language Background	2
1.1.2 Ecology of Language in Taiwan	4
1.1.3 Motivation of This Study	6
1.2 Problems of Using Mandarin	7
1.3 Difficulty in Pronouncing /r, l/ in English	8
1.4 Purpose of the Study	9
1.5 Research Questions	10
1.6 What to Look for in This Thesis	10

Chapter Two REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE	11
2.1 Sociolinguistic Perspective on Language Variation	11
2.2 Language Transfer and Interference	14
2.3 Related Studies on Difficulties in Pronouncing Retroflex Sounds	15
2.4 Summary	19

Chapter Three METHODOLOGY	20
3.1 Participants	20
3.2 Instruments	21
3.2.1 Questionnaire (see Appendices A-B)	21
3.2.2 Speech Material (see Appendices C-I)	22
3.3 Data Collection	23
3.4 Data Analysis	24
3.4.1 Linguistic Dimension	25
3.4.2 Sociolinguistic Dimension	25

Chapter Four RESULTS	27
4.1 Linguistic Dimension	28
4.1.1 Linguistic Performance by Ethnic Groups	28
4.1.1.1 Overall Performance by Ethnic Groups	29
4.1.1.2 Minimal Pairs by Ethnic Groups	32
4.1.1.3 Phrase Reading by Ethnic Groups	33
4.1.1.4 Passage Reading by Ethnic Groups	35
4.1.1.5 Picture Description by Ethnic Groups	37
4.1.1.6 Summary	40
4.1.2 Linguistic Performance in Self-Comparison	41
4.1.2.1 Correlations Among /z/, /r/, /l/ in Overall Performance	41
4.1.2.2 Correlations Among /z/ of Overall Performance and /r/ of Four Tasks	42
4.1.2.3 Correlations Among /z/ of Overall Performance and /l/ of Three Tasks	45
4.1.2.4 Correlations Among /r/ of Overall Performance and /l/ of Four Tasks	46
4.1.2.5 Summary	49
4.2 Sociolinguistic Dimension	49
4.2.1 Language and Sex	50
4.2.2 Language and Ethnic Groups of Parents	52
4.2.3 Language and Parents’ Educational Backgrounds	57
4.2.4 Language and Monthly Income	63
4.2.5 Language and Residency Areas	66
4.2.6 Language and Years of English Learning	69
4.2.7 Summary	72

Chapter Five DISCUSSION	73
5.1 Linguistic Dimension	73
5.2 Sociolinguistic Dimension	80
5.2.1 Sex	81
5.2.2 Ethnicity	82
5.2.3 Education	84
5.2.4 Monthly Income	85
5.2.5 Residency Area	86
5.2.6 Years of English Learning	87
5.3 Summary	87

Chapter Six CONCLUSIONS	89
6.1 Findings for Research Questions	89
6.1.1 Findings for Research Question 1	89
6.1.2 Findings for Research Question 2	90
6.1.3 Findings for Research Question 3	91
6.2 Pedagogical Implications	93
6.3 Limitations and Suggestions	95

REFERENCES	96

APPENDICES	103
Appendix A: A Questionnaire of Sociolinguistic Research (Chinese)	104 
Appendix B: A Questionnaire of Sociolinguistic Research (English)	109 
Appendix C: Chinese Minimal Pairs	112
Appendix D: Chinese Phrases	113
Appendix E: Chinese Passage	114
Appendix F: English Words	115
Appendix G: English Phrases	116
Appendix H: English Passage	117
Appendix I: Describing a Picture in Chinese and English	118
 
LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 4.1 NUMBER OF SOUNDS IN EACH TASK OF SPEECH MATERIAL 28
TABLE 4.2 MEAN SCORES OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN OVERALL PERFORMANCE	29
TABLE 4.3 T-TEST OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN OVERALL PERFORMANCE	30
TABLE 4.4 CORRELATIONS AMONG /z/, /r/, AND /l/ WITHIN 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN OVERALL PERFORMANCE... 31
TABLE 4.5 MEAN SCORES OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN MINIMAL PAIRS ...................................... 32
TABLE 4.6 T-TEST OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN MINIMAL PAIRS .... 33
TABLE 4.7 MEAN SCORES OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PHRASE READING................................... 34
TABLE 4.8 T-TEST OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PHRASE READING ... 35
TABLE 4.9 MEAN SCORES OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PASSAGE READING ................................. 36
TABLE 4.10 T-TEST OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PASSAGE READING............................................ 37
TABLE 4.11 MEAN SCORES OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PICTURE DESCRIPTION ......................... 39
TABLE 4.12 T-TEST OF 2 ETHNIC GROUPS IN PICTURE DESCRIPTION...................................... 40
TABLE 4.13 CORRELATIONS AMONG /z/, /r/, /l/ IN OVERALL PERFORMANCE ......................... 42
TABLE 4.14 CORRELATIONS AMONG /z/ OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND /r/ OF FOUR TASKS.... 44
TABLE 4.15 CORRELATIONS AMONG /z/ OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND /l/ OF THREE TASKS. 46
TABLE 4.16 CORRELATIONS AMONG /r/ OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND /z/ OF FOUR TASKS.. 48
TABLE 4.17 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY SEX ... 50
TABLE 4.18 MEAN SCORES OF /z/ IN PASSAGE READING BY SEX . 51
TABLE 4.19 ONE-WAY ANOVA TEST OF /z/ IN PASSAGE READING BY SEX............................. 51
TABLE 4.20 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY FATHERS’ ETHNIC GROUPS ...... 53
TABLE 4.21 ONE-WAY ANOVA TEST OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY FATHERS' ETHNIC GROUPS... 54
TABLE 4.22 ONE-WAY ANOVA TEST OF /z/ IN PASSAGE READING AND /r/ IN PICTURE
DESCRIPTION BY FATHERS' ETHNIC GROUPS.... 55
TABLE 4.23 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY MOTHERS’ ETHNIC GROUPS .... 56
TABLE 4.24 CORRELATIONS AMONG OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND PARENTS' ETHNIC GROUPS... 57
TABLE 4.25 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY FATHERS' EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS.......... 59
TABLE 4.26 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY MOTHERS' EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS........ 60
TABLE 4.27 ONE-WAY ANOVA TEST BY MOTHERS' EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS.............. 61
TABLE 4.28 SCHEFFÉ POST HOC TEST BY MOTHERS' EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDS ........... 62
TABLE 4.29 CORRELATIONS AMONG OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND PARENTS' EDUCATIONAL
LEVELS.... 63
TABLE 4.30 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY MONTHLY INCOME.................. 65
TABLE 4.31 CORRELATIONS OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY MONTHLY INCOME ................ 65
TABLE 4.32 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY RESIDENCY AREAS.................. 67
TABLE 4.33 ONE-WAY ANOVA TEST BY RESIDENCY AREAS... 68
TABLE 4.34 SCHEFFÉ POST HOC TEST BY RESIDENCY AREAS.. 69
TABLE 4.35 NUMBER OF YEARS OF ENGLISH LEARNING.. 69
TABLE 4.36 MEAN SCORES OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY YEARS OF ENGLISH LEARNING70
TABLE 4.37 CORRELATIONS OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY YEARS OF ENGLISH LEARNING.....72

LIST of FIGURES

FIGURE 1.1 SOCIAL AND REGIONAL DIALECT VARIATION ..... 13
FIGURE 5.1 SCORE DISTRIBUTION OF /z/ IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL SPEECHES BY SUBJECTS' FIRST LANGUAGE......... 78
FIGURE 5.2 SCORE DISTRIBUTION OF /z/, /r/, AND /l/ IN FOUR TASKS....................................... 79
FIGURE 5.3 SCORE DISTRIBUTION OF OVERALL PERFORMANCE BY ETHNIC GROUPS OF PARENTS ............ 83

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