Investigating the Utilizing of Durational and Spectral Cues in the Perception of English /I-i:/ Contrast by Chinese Listeners

English vowel /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 from 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 II-i:/ tokens was used to examine listeners' English levels. Four categorical perception tests with synthesized II-i:/ continua were carried out to investigate listeners' ability of utilizing durational and spectral cues in II-i:/ perception. The results showed no clear categorical perception in the durational dimension for both groups, while in the spectral dimension, the high English proficiency group demonstrated a more categorical-like perception pattern. The results also showed that the high English proficiency group had better ability in utilizing spectral and durational cues for English /I/ and /i:/ identification, indicating that listeners' cue- weighting strategies were influenced by their English levels.