However, there are also some different voices among  researchers that production is relatively dependent and is almost irrelevant to perception. Goto (1971) also reports that Japanese speakers unable to hear the difference between /r/ and /l/ may still learn to produce the difference, presumably through articulatory training in which they learn the correct places and manners of articulation required for the production of the two sounds. Moreover, Sheldon and Strange (1982) did an experiment with Japanese speakers of English with specific regard to /l/ and /r/ since Japanese do not contrast these segments in the phonological system. It concluded that the production of /l/ and /r/ were more accurate than the perception of them.

From the researches above, I have a strong interest in the results of the perception and production of English consonants /n/ /l/ and /r/ from Chinese learners’. Therefore, I’d like to study Chinese learners’ perception  and  production  of  English  consonants  /n/  /l/  and  /r/  by  a similar approach.

III.Methodology

This study includes two experiments: (1) Chinese learners' perception of English consonants /n/ /l/ and /r/. (2) Chinese learners’ production of English consonants /n/ /l/ and /r/.

In the perceptual assimilation experiment, there are  3 foreign teachers and 32 Chinese learners; In the production experiment, there are 3 foreign teachers and 6 Chinese learners from the perceptual assimilation experiment. Each experiment includes four parts: Speech Materials and Audio process, Participants, Procedure.

3.1 The Perception of the Experiment

The assimilation experiment is operated in a MATLAB platform in Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. All of the materials in this experiment are recorded by 3 British foreign teachers with Cool Edit 2.0 in phonetic lab. 32 Chinese learners as subjects to listen target materials.

3.1.1 Speech Materials and Audio Process

The target words in perceptual assimilation experiment are  showed in this following table. There are 94 English words totally. All of the materials in this experiment are recorded by 3 British foreign teachers with Cool Edit 2.0 in phonetic lab, and each foreign teacher needs to read these 94 words. Every foreign teachers’ sound record is put separately into one audio folder labeled by 3 foreign teachers’ name. Having recorded the perception materials, we cut off final consonants of the words by using PRAAT, only retaining initial consonants and vowels to make it convenient for Chinese learners to do assimilation experiment. (Picture 1)

Table 1The English speech material for the perceptual experiment

seek-beep peek-pick jame-game did-tip

cook-good dog-doc keep- geep keep- geep

wore-sore put-book cut-gut gap-cap

say-zay zak-sad jet-yet these- seise

ship-sheep Lead-read-need leap-reap-neap Lib-rib-nib

limb-rim-nim Look-rook-nook Loot-root-noot room-loom-noom

Led-red-ned let-ret-net lek-reck-neck