A Study on the Utilizing of Durational and Spectral Cues in the Perception of English /i-i:/ Contrast by Chinese Learners

English vowels /I/ and /i:/ are different in both durational and spectral dimensions. To investigate Chinese listeners’ perceptual sensitivity to durational and spectral cues for the English /I-i:/ contrast, and the effect of their L2 proficiency, two groups of native Chinese listeners with different English levels participated in the current study. A word recognition test with naturally produced /I-i:/ tokens was used to examine listeners’ English levels. Four categorical perception (CP) tests with synthesized /I-i:/ continua were carried out to investigate listeners’ ability to utilize durational and spectral cues in English /I/-/i:/ perception. The results showed the high English proficiency (HEP) group in the spectral dimension demonstrated a more categorical-like perception pattern, suggesting it had a better ability to utilize spectral cues for English /I/ and /i:/ identification. Besides, the HEP group had a tendency to rely less on durational cues, which indicated that listeners’ cue-weighting strategies were influenced by their English levels.