本論文主要探討台灣英語學習者重音產製（production），並討論台灣英語學習者如何運用語音特徵（例如：音高、音長、音量）產製下降以及上升聲調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組（English noun-verb stress contrasts）。除此之外，本論文也探討英語母語人士如何感知台灣英語學習者的下降以及上升聲調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組產製。

為了探討台灣英語學習者如何運用音高、音長、音量產製下降語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，八位高級或中級英語學習者參與錄音，並錄製六組英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，而這六組對照詞組被放在一個下降語調的句型架構（例如：No, it is ______.）；另外四名英語母語人士也參與，並當成對照組。這六組詞組的重音與非重音音節的母音都被測量，而這些母音的音高、音長及音量都被分析。結果顯示台灣高級或中級英語學習者可以如同英語母語人士運用音高、音長、音量產製下降語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，但是他們運用音高的程度和英語母語人士不同；換句話說，台灣高級或中級英語學習者的重音音節產製的音高沒有像英語母語人士的一般高。

另外，為了研究台灣英語學習者如何運用音高、音長、音量產製上升語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，同一批台灣英語學習者及同一批英語母語人士也錄製了六組上升語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，而這些詞組被放在一個上升語調的句型架構（例如：Did you say ______?）；同樣地，這六組詞組的重音與非重音音節的母音都被測量，而這些母音的音高、音長及音量都被分析。結果發現，台灣高級或中級英語學習者只運用音長而非音高產製上升語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組，而英語母語人士都運用音長及音高這兩個語音特徵產製上升語調的英文名詞動詞重音對照詞組。

為了探討英語母語人士如何感知台灣英語學習者的下降及上升語調之英語名詞動詞重音對照詞組產製，另外八位英語母語人士參與三組測驗：辨認作業（identification task）、口音評級作業（accent-rating tasks）、理解度評級作業（comprehensibility tasks）。在辨認作業裡，這八位受試者必須判斷他們所聽到的對照詞組為名詞或動詞。在口音評級及理解度評級作業裡，這些受試者必須運用九階層尺度製成（9-point scale）評級所聽到的產製的口音及理解度。結果顯示我們的受試者在感知下降語調之英語名詞動詞重音對照詞組產製時，正確率比較高（94.44%）；相對地，在感知上升語調之對照詞組時，正確率比較低（89.06%）。在下降語調的辨認作業中，英語母語人士以及台灣英語學習者的產製都可以被正確地感知。然而在上升語調的辨認作業中，英語母語人士在感知英語母語人士的產製時，正確率比較高（93.62%），但當他們在感知台灣高級（89.71%）或中級（83.85%）的英語學習者的產製時，正確率比較低。除此之外，英語母語人士對口音評級分數下降，而辨認作業的正確率也下降。

The present study aims to investigate how the acoustic cues (i.e., mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity) are utilized by Taiwanese EFL learners to produce English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling and rising intonation. In addition, we examine how English native speakers perceive the English noun-verb stress contrasts produced by Taiwanese EFL learners.
To examine English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation, eight Taiwanese EFL learners, either in advanced level or intermediate level, recorded six English noun-verb stress contrasts which were put in a sentence frame (i.e., No, it is ______.), and four native speakers of English were also recruited for recording as a basis for comparison. Then, the vowels of the stressed and unstressed syllables were measured in terms of mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity. The results suggest that Taiwanese EFL learners in advanced or intermediate level produce English noun-verb stress contrasts by utilizing mean pitch, duration, and mean intensity, but the extent they utilize mean pitch is different from English native speakers. That is, they produced stressed syllables that are less high-pitched than English native speakers.
To investigate how Taiwanese EFL learners utilize the correlates to produce the English noun-verb stress contrasts in rising intonation, the same groups of speakers also recorded the six English noun-verb stress contrasts put in another sentence frame (i.e., Did you say ______?), and the vowels of the stressed and unstressed syllables were measured and analyzed. The results show that Taiwanese EFL learners, either in advanced or intermediate level, utilize duration, but not mean pitch, to produce the noun-verb contrasts, while English native speakers use both duration and mean pitch.
To examine how English native speakers perceive the English noun-verb stress contrasts with Taiwanese-accent, another eight English native speakers participated in doing several tasks including identification tasks, accent-rating tasks, and comprehensibility tasks. The results suggest that although Taiwanese EFL learners’ production of the six English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation was rated as foreign-accented, our eight English native speakers can identify their production with higher accuracy. In contrast, production in rising intonation was also rated as foreign-accented; however our English native speakers have difficulties in identifying their production.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i
ABSTRACT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF FIGURES x
LIST OF TABLES xii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Background and Motivation 1
1.2. Organization of present study 9
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 11
2.1. Some phonological knowledge of English stress and Mandarin tones 11
2.1.1. English stress 11
2.1.2. Mandarin lexical tones 14
2.2. L2 phonological acquisition Models 16
2.3. Mandarin speakers’ perception and production of English stress 20
2.4. Foreign-accented production perceived by native speakers 23
2.5. Present study 23
CHAPTER 3. STUDY I: TAIWANESE EFL LEARNERS’ PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH NOUN-VERB STRESS CONTRASTS IN FALLING INTONATION 29
3.1. Introduction 29
3.2. Method 29
3.2.1. Subjects 29
3.2.2. Materials 31
3.2.3. Recording procedure 33
3.2.4. Acoustic Measurement 35
3.2.5. Ratio Transformation 37
3.3. Results 40
3.3.1. The phonetic characteristics of our subjects’ English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation 40
3.3.2. First-to-second ratios 45
3.3.3. Stressed-to-unstressed ratios 47
3.4. Discussion 49
3.5. Conclusion 52
CHAPTER 4. STUDY II: TAIWANESE EFL LEARNERS’ PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH NOUN-VERB STRESS CONTRASTS IN RISING INTONATION 54
4.1. Introduction 54
4.2. Method 55
4.3. Results 55
4.3.1. The phonetic characteristics of our subjects’ English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling intonation 55
4.3.2. First-to-second ratios 61
4.3.3. Stressed-to-unstressed ratios 64
4.4. Discussion 65
4.5. Conclusion 67
CHAPTER 5. STUDY III: ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS’ PERCEPTION OF TAIWANESE-ACCENTED ENGLISH NOUN-VERB STRESS CONTRASTS 70
5.1. Introduction 70
5.2. Method 71
5.2.1. Subjects 71
5.2.2. Materials 72
5.2.3. Procedure 73
5.3. Results 77
5.3.1. Identification Task 77
5.3.2. Accent Rating 88
5.3.3. Comprehensibility Judgments 92
5.4. Discussion 96
5.5. Conclusion 98
CHAPTER 6. DISCCUSION AND CONCLUSION 100
6.1. Summary of the previous chapters 100
6.1.1. Taiwanese EFL learners’ production of English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling and rising intonation 100
6.1.2. English native speakers’ evaluation of Taiwanese EFL learners’ production of English noun-verb stress contrasts 101
6.2. General discussion 102
6.2.1. Taiwanese EFL learners’ production of the English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling and rising intonation 103
6.2.2. English native speakers’ perception of Taiwanese-accented production in falling and rising intonation 105
6.2.3. English native speakers’ utilization of the stress correlates to perceive Taiwanese EFL learners’ production of the English noun-verb stress contrasts in falling and rising intonation 108
6.3. Limitations in this thesis 110
6.4. Directions for Future Research 113
6.5. Conclusion 114
REFERENCE 116
APPENDIX 123
Appendix A- Questionnaires for Taiwanese EFL learners 123
Appendix B- Questionnaires for English native speakers 124
Appendix C- Reading Task 125
Appendix D- The pitch contour and duration of the stressed and unstressed syllables in the contrast in falling intonation produced by all of the speakers in three groups 126
Appendix E- The pitch contour and duration of the stressed and unstressed syllables in the contrast in rising intonation produced by all of the speakers in three groups 145
Appendix F- The pitch contour and duration of the stressed and unstressed syllables in the noun test words in rising intonation produced by the speakers in TWA groups 165

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