Prioritizing Pronunciation Features for Intelligibility: A Perception Study of the French /E/ Vowels

Despite the fact that pronunciation is a vital aspect of language learning, previous research has shown that its instruction is limited in the classroom in terms of time and attention, due in part to the time constraints inherent in any curriculum. It then becomes essential for instructors to be strategic about the pronunciation features they explicitly teach. The features that most affect the intelligibility of the learners must be identified through research for each target language. The present study aims to determine whether the commonly taught French mid-vowel pair /e/~/ɛ/ should be prioritized in the language classroom by identifying both the extent to which its pronunciation by intermediate- and advanced-level learners can be distinguished by native listeners and which phonological contexts most affect lexical intelligibility. Results indicate that the learners were nearly as intelligible as a native-speaker control group with regard to target vowel production, suggesting that the /e/~/ɛ/ pair should not be a priority at those levels of instruction. Additionally, identification rates decreased when the target vowels occurred in word-initial and open-syllable positions, which patterns after trends in the speech of native speakers, as observed in other studies.