


































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 4, No. 3, 2023 

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78 
 

Original Paper 

An Experimental Study on Societal Factors Affecting VOT of 

English Plosives 

Lin Xiaoyan1 
1 School of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 

China 

 

Received: June 15, 2023        Accepted: July 8, 2023      Online Published: July 25, 2023 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v4n3p78        URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v4n3p78 

 

Abstract 

Plosives are integral components of English consonants. In phonetics, English plosives are classified 

into voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/. VOT (voice onset time) was defined as “the time interval 

between the burst that marks release of the stop closure and the onset of quasi-periodicity that reflects 

laryngeal vibration”. VOT is a significant acoustic feature and analytic parameter of plosives. Referring 

to Labov’s experimental model of linguistic variation analysis, this study investigates the influences of 

societal factors have on the VOT of English plosives. 

In this study, 15 English words with word-initial voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ and 15 word-initial voiced 

plosives /b, d, g/ were selected as reading material; meanwhile, 30 subjects were randomly recruited to 

read, and audio samples were collected. It is found that the two social factors (gender and regional 

dialect) selected in this experiment have influences in different degrees on the English plosive VOT of the 

subjects. The specific results are as follows. 

For gender, no significant difference exists between males and females, but the mean VOT of females is 

longer than that of males, which is basically consistent with previous research results. The underlying 

reasons of the gender VOT differences inferred by this paper can be physiological and sociophonetical. 

For regional dialects, the VOT of the subjects were primarily influenced by Southwest Mandarin and Min 

Dialect, in which the mean value of voiceless plosives was higher and the difference was greater for 

speakers of Southwest Mandarin, and the mean value of voiced plosives was higher and the difference 

was greater for speakers of Min Dialect. The results of this empirical study theoretically provide some 

reference for acoustic researches, and pedagogically, provide some implications for optimizations of 

English curriculums in university. 

Keywords 

plosive, English plosive, VOT (voice onset time), acoustic experiment, phonetics study, PRAAT, gender, 

regional dialect 



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1. Introduction 

The thesis undertakes an experimental study on societal factors affecting VOT of English Plosives. As a 

brief introduction to the thesis, this chapter consists of four parts: background of the study, significance 

of the study, objectives of the study and outline of the study. 

1.1 Background of the Study 

Language is first perceived through its sounds. From the structuralism viewpoints, language consists of 

three parts: speech sound, grammar and vocabulary, of which speech sound is the material shell of 

language; thus the study of sounds is of great significance in linguistics, especially in phonetics and 

phonology. In phonetics, speech sounds, all the sounds produced by humans through their speech organs, 

are defined as the phonic medium of language and taken as the research objects.  

In the IPA chart, the sound segments are grouped into consonants and vowels. Crystal (1997) described 

that consonants are produced “by a closure in the vocal tract or by a narrowing which is so marked that 

air cannot escape without an audible friction.” The plosive, one sort of consonant, is formed when the 

vocal tract is completely closed, occupying an important position in all kinds of consonants because it is 

the only consonant that all languages have; however, there are great distinctions in the classifications and 

phonological characteristics of plosives in different languages, and hence effective acoustic parameters 

are needed to classify plosives. Lisker and Abramson (1964) conducted a cross-language investigation 

of plosives in 11 languages and defined voice onset time (VOT for short) as “the temporal interval from 

the release burst of the plosives to the onset of the first formant frequency that reflects glottal vibration.” 

In their study, all plosives are classified into three groups: voiceless aspirated plosives, voiceless 

unaspirated plosives and voiced plosives. Since then, VOT has been widely used to differentiate plosive 

categories across languages, and it has come to be regarded as one of the best acoustic cues for 

discriminating general plosive categories, especially in word-initial position. For English, voicing, rather 

than aspiration, is considered as the distinctive features of English plosives which phonologically consist 

of voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ and voiced plosives /b, d, g/.  

It is undoubtedly that the concept and measurement benchmark of VOT foster the development of 

experimental phonetics especially pronunciation test thereinto. At present, researchers at home and 

abroad have been committed to the development and application of speech analysis software so as to 

visualize the implicit characteristics of speech. Among those tools, PRAAT is more than widely employed 

in the analysis, annotation, processing and synthesis of digital speech signals due to its practicability and 

maneuverability. 

From the traditional perspective of structuralism, language is a homogeneous and orderly internal system 

on which external factors have few affects. On the contrary, William Labov, an American linguist who 

has taken the lead in sociolinguistics, believes that language is a heterogeneous system that will produce 

variation under the influence of societal factors. He drew his conclusions from his four famous studies: 

the Martha’s Vineyard survey, the New York survey, the Black-English Dialect Study and the 

Philadelphia Survey. According to Labov, language and society are two independent entities; the 



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responsibilities for sociolinguists are to connect linguistic facts (phonology, lexicology, syntax...) with 

social facts (social class, gender, age, occupation…) and to probe their correlations.  

Having realized the significance of speech sound research, some linguists have done some relevant 

studies. In the aspect of plosive research, for instance, Zheng Xianri and Li Yinghao (2007) conducted a 

study on the comparison of VOT between English and Chinese and the acquisition of English plosives 

by Han students; Zhang Jinyu (2012) conducted an acoustic analysis of VOT of French plosives among 

Chinese students who had acquired French and found the influence of “negative transfer”. However, the 

implications some societal factors can have to speech sounds have not received its deserved attention. 

Hereby, this paper presents a hypothesis that there are some connections between VOT of English 

plosives and social factors, which will be statistically demonstrated in the following chapters. 

1.2 Significance of the Study 

This research is an empirical acoustic study on the basis of interrelated English phonetic theories and 

presented plosive research results, which fundamentally employs theories and methodologies of 

sociolinguistics and phonetic analytical technique of PARRT. And the significance of this study will be 

stated from the theoretical and practical perspectives as follows. 

Firstly, the theoretical values. This survey is based on the VOT theoretical model proposed by Lisker and 

Abramson, which can promote the further study of phonetics in VOT. In addition, still insufficient studies 

on English plosive VOT at home and abroad have been shown, and hence this research can help bridge 

this gap. Moreover, there are few studies combining experimental phonetics and sociolinguistics although 

which both belong to field of linguistics but thoroughly two different branches and research directions. 

This survey explores the societal factors influencing English plosive VOT, reflecting the innovation of 

linguistic research and enriching the theoretical vacancy of phonological sociality. 

Secondly, the practical significance. This acoustic empirical research conducted with sound segmenting 

software is based on manipulation, which to some extent reflects scientific spirit of experimental 

verification. Then, social investigation and the quantitative research method of sociolinguistics is 

included in the experimental process of this project, which is conducive to exploring the effects of 

multiple social factors on VOT of English plosives in different degrees. What is more, based on the 

overall acquisition situation, the study investigates and analyzes the influences of different social factors, 

helping put forward correlative suggestions, for example, improving pedagogical methods and teaching 

techniques to enhance the English acquisition levels of Chinese college students. 

1.3 Objective of the Study 

In a macroscopic sense, as is mentioned above, there are insufficient researches exploring the functions 

societal factors have on speech sounds, especially on English plosives. Therefore, an experiment is 

required to be designed to investigate the degrees of functioning of different social factors on English 

plosives; thereinto, VOT will be employed as an essential acoustic parameter to accomplish accuracy and 

objectiveness of measurement. Ultimately, the production of plosive by English learners in China and 

the analysis results will be exhibited in the presented paper. 



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In a microscopic sense, firstly, consonant, which is secondary to vowel but bearing more than important 

values in acoustic study, is lack of empirical research. To explore this sound category further, the study 

aims to extract and compare the acoustic features of one sort of English consonant—plosive of Chinese 

people under the effects of different social factors. Moreover, as aforementioned, sociolinguistics 

connects the linguistic facts and societal facts; but the noteworthy thing is that the specific societal facts 

which can actually function on linguistic facts and their corresponding functional ways, which are the 

main questions this study aims to answer. 

1.4 Outline of the Study 

The thesis consists of five chapters to have a comprehensive analysis of the societal factors influencing 

VOT of English plosives on the basis of phonetics experiment data. And the first chapter, the presented 

one, serves a brief introduction to the whole thesis. 

Chapter 2 is basically a literature review on basic concepts, theoretical framework, empirical research 

and summary. To put it on detail, it includes the definition and classification of plosives, the introduction 

to English plosives, the illustration of voice onset time (VOT) and Labov’s theories. Results of existing 

researches will be exhibited as well. 

Chapter 3 describes the methodology of this research. Thereinto, research questions, quantitative research 

method and experimental designs will be demonstrated. Specifically, the designs include subjects, 

materials and procedures. 

In Chapter 4, the experiment results will be focused. The data will be analyzed and further discussed on 

the basis of two sets of variations, namely two different societal factors: gender and regional dialect. 

The last chapter provides the conclusion of the entire research, where major findings will be presented. 

The limitations of this study and suggestions for the future researches will also be elaborated. 

 

2. Literature Review 

This chapter will firstly introduce the basic concepts of the study including plosives and English plosives. 

Then, the theoretical frameworks adapted in this study will be presented; to put it specifically, the 

introduction of voice onset time and language transfer theory will be included. Lastly, the previous 

empirical studies concerning plosives, both at home and abroad, will be reviewed as well. 

2.1 Basic Items 

2.1.1 Plosives 

Plosives, a sort of consonants formed when the vocal tract is completely closed, play an essential role in 

phonetics. Some phoneticians have pointed out that “plosives are the only kind of consonants that occur 

in all languages” (Ladefoged & Maddieson, 1996) and “plosives show the characteristics of consonants 

best”; hence, studies on plosives are of great significance. 

2.1.1.1 Definitions of Plosives 

Plentiful definitions of plosives have so far been given. 



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Sloat, Taylor and Hoard (1978) defined that “plosives are made by a complete blockage of the airstream 

at some points in the vocal tract. The blockage does not produce the sounds alone; rather it is the 

formation and the release of blockage which produces sounds”.  

Liu Zhengyi (1990) described that “plosives are formed by a complete closure of the air-passage and then 

the air abruptly issuing on the release of the closure”.  

Wang Guizhen (2002) indicated that the plosives are the sounds which were made by completely 

hindering the airflow at some points in the mouth, and releasing it into the sound that follows.  

Gussenhoven and Jacobs (2011) also stated that “plosives are formed by a complete closure in the speech 

tract, behind which the air from the lung is compressed until the closure is suddenly released and the air 

explodes outwards”. 

As all shown in the aforementioned definitions, when the obstruction is created by the speech organs in 

total or complete, the speech is produced with the obstruction audibly released, and the air passing out 

again. On this condition, the plosives are produced. 

2.1.1.2 Articulation of Plosives 

Roach (2000) indicated that the general articulation process as follows: first, one or two articulations are 

moved again each other so as to form a stricture that allows no air to escape from the vocal tract. Then, 

after this stricture has been formed and air has been compressed behind it, it is released, that is, the air is 

allowed to escape.  

The corresponding articulation phases of plosives to the above process are indicated by Zhou Weijing 

(2018). These phases are closure, hold and release. Then, the following figure is conducive to illustrating 

the whole articulation of plosives comprising three phases. 

 

 

 

Figure 1. The Articulation Process of Plosives (Zhou Weijing, 2018, p. 103) 

 

The first phase is the closure phase, during which the articulating organs move together to form the 

obstruction. In this stage, one articulator is moved against another, or two articulators are moved against 

each other to form a total stricture allowing no air to escape from the oral tract. 



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The second phase is the hold phase. It is a stage during which the lung actions compress the air behind 

the closure. The compressed air may or may not be accompanied by voicing, that is, the vibration of the 

vocal folds. 

The third phase is the release phase, during which the organs forming the closure rapidly allow the 

compressed air to abruptly escape. In this stage, the air escape will produce noise loud enough to be heard, 

namely, an explosion, and hence the name “plosives” are obtained. 

2.1.2 English Plosives 

2.1.2.1 Classifications of English Plosives 

English consonants can be classified in two ways: in terms of manner of articulation and in terms of place 

of articulation; whereas, although plosives are consonants, they can be categorized from more different 

perspectives, owing to their phonetic characteristics. 

In terms of manner of articulation, all English plosives belong to obstruents, meaning complete closure 

without airstream escaping from the mouth (Cruttenden, 2001). But, with respect to place of articulation, 

English plosives can be divided into three parts: bilabial plosives, alveolar plosives and velar plosives 

(Roach, 2000). Thereinto, /p/ and /b/ are bilabial plosives, because the lips will be pressed together while 

articulating; /t/ and /d/ are alveolar plosives, on account that during the articulation the tongue blade will 

press against the alveolar ridge; /k/ and /g/ are velar plosives, and the back of the tongue will press against 

the position where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins. 

In line with the force of articulation, English plosives comprise fortis and lenis (Cruttenden, 2001). While 

English plosives are pronounced, /p, t, k/ tend to be articulated with more muscular energy than /b, d, g/, 

so as stronger breath effort; thus, /p, t, k/ are demonstrated as fortis and /b, d, g/ are lenis. 

According to the work of vocal folds, English plosives can be classified into voiceless plosives and 

voiced plosives (Zhao, 2007). The former are /p, t, k/ because they accompanied no vibration from the 

larynx; /b, d, g/ belong to the latter, and the vocal cords vibrate while articulating these three plosives. 

 

Table 1. The Classification of English Plosives 

Plosives Place of Articulation Work of Vocal Cords Force of Articulation 

/p/ Bilabial Voiceless Fortis 

/b/ Voiced Lenis 

/t/ Alveolar Voiceless Fortis 

/d/ Voiced Lenis 

/k/ Velar Voiceless Fortis 

/g/ Voiced Lenis 

 

 

 



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2.1.2.2 Phonetic Features of English Plosives 

It is worth emphasizing that voicing and aspiration are two essential phonetic characteristics of plosives 

in phonetics and phonology, which can be shown in line with manners of articulation mentioned above. 

Voicing refers to the articulatory process during which the vocal fold vibrates. Cruttenden (2001) stated 

that “...at any place of articulation, a consonantal articulation may involve the vibration of the vocal colds, 

that is, may be voiceless or voiced. In this situation, voicing comes into being”. In English plosives, 

voicing is defined as the distinctive features, that is, in the same phonetic context; the concrete meaning 

of words can be distinguished by voicing. For instance, in minimal pairs like “big” and “pig”, “tap” and 

“gap”, the voiced plosive /b/ (/t/) and the voiceless plosives /p/ (/g/) form phonetic contrast, namely, they 

only differentiate in the voicing, but they somehow show the different meaning of two words.  

As for aspiration, it refers to the strong burst of airflow accompanying the release or the closure of some 

obstruents in the case of preaspiration. Ladefoged and Johnson (2015) defined aspiration as “aspiration 

is a period of voicelessness after the plosive articulation and before the start of the voicing for the vowel”. 

Aspiration is not the distinctive features for English plosives, it is to say, the meanings of words will not 

change whether the plosives aspirate or not. Raise “speak” as an example, aspiration of /p/ is absent when 

pronouncing because it is proceeded by s in a stressed syllable; whereas, whether the /p/ is aspirated or 

unaspirated, the meanings of the original word have no change, because the aspirated [ph] and the 

unaspirated [p] are simultaneously the allophones, namely, the phonetic variants of the phoneme /p/. 

English and Chinese belong to two different phonological categories. As aforementioned, the distinctive 

feature of English is voicing rather than aspiration; nonetheless, in Chinese, aspiration is the distinctive 

feature, not voicing. 

2.2 Theoretical Framework 

2.2.1 VOT 

Voice Onset Time (VOT), is a temporal feature of plosive productions and one of the most commonly 

used acoustic cues in phonetic analysis. 

Lisker and Abramson (1964) tested four American English speakers in an acoustic experiment and 

published the article A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements to 

describe the characteristics of plosives using the concept of voice onset time (VOT) which was defined 

as “the time interval between the burst that marks release of the stop closure and the onset of quasi-



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periodicity that reflects laryngeal vibration”. Since then, a considerable number of studies of other 

languages have been undertaken, and VOT has come to be considered as one of the most important 

methods for examination of plosive voicing time (especially in word-initial position). They also 

suggested that each plosive category falls into one of three ranges respectively: –125 to –75 ms 

(millisecond), 0 to +25 ms, and +60 to +100 ms. In accordance with Lisker and Abramson’s 

categorization, both English and Mandarin fall into the group of two-category languages, occupying the 

same range along the VOT continuum, that is, 0 to +25 ms for [p, t, k] and +60 to +100 ms for [ph, th, kh]. 

The VOT value of plosives thus becomes the only scale being able to achieve plosive classifications 

according to voicing contrast. Afterwards, Cho and Ladefoged (1999) classified more specifically the 

range for voiceless aspirated and unaspirated concentrating particularly on velar plosives across 18 

languages. They distinguished four categories, which they dubbed unaspirated (around 30 ms), slightly 

aspirated (around 50 ms), aspirated (around 90 ms) and highly aspirated (over 90 ms).  

MacKay’s research (1984) showed that the VOTs of plosives have positive and negative values. When 

voicing begins subsequent to the burst of airflow, VOT is positive and called “voicing lead”; when 

voicing precedes the burst of air, VOT is negative and called “voicing lag”. In cases when the two co-

occur, VOT is zero. Keating (1987) further divided voicing lag plosives into “long lag” and “short lag” 

plosives, with the VOT of the former greater than 35 ms and of the latter between 20-35 ms; thus, plosives 

then fall into three categories: voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and voiceless aspirated. She (1987) also 

developed theory of “polarization” indicating that in a language, the VOT values of different plosives 

should be in different ranges, to achieve different plosive categories whose manifestation is the VOT 

central values of different plosives should be separate from other else. 

 

 

Figure 2. The Categories of Plosives (Keating, 1987, p. 309) 

 

 

 



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2.2.2  Language Transfer Theory 

The word “transfer” is originally a psychological term. Odlindefined transfer as “a sort of influence, 

which comes from the similarity and the difference between L1 and L2”. The concept of language transfer 

was formally proposed in the comparative analysis theory that emerged in the 1940s. Since the 1950s, 

various interpretations of the concept of language transfer were indicated by many famous scholars such 

as Lado, Stockwell, Schachter and Ellis. Generally, they thought in the process of second language 

acquisition, learners’ habits of using their first language will have direct effects on the acquisition of 

second language, which plays a positive role in promotion or negative in interference; those which have 

positive influences on SLA are called “positive transfer”, and the counterpart is called “negative transfer”. 

For instance, Chinese and English are distinct from each other no matter in pronunciation, semantics or 

sentence patterns, and the English students whose first language is Chinese will presumably encounter 

various difficulties, which is the negative transfer of mother language that has interference with their 

English learning. 

2.3 Empirical Research 

2.3.1 Empirical Research at Home 

The acoustical researches of plosives started from abroad and gradually arose in the phonetics field in 

China. Pertinent researches in China involves multilingual (not limited to English) experiment and multi-

field (such as language comparative study, language acquisition and language teaching). 

In terms of bilingual comparative experiment, Zheng Xianri and Li Yinghao (2007) conducted a study 

comparing of VOTs between English and Chinese, and investigating the acquisition of English plosives 

by Han Students. It was found that there were presumably language transfers (transfer the Chinese 

pronunciation patterns to that of English) during the generation of English voiced plosives which are 

dissimilar from Chinese. Wu Gang (2012) also experimentally compared VOTs of English and Chinese 

plosives, and shed light upon some enlightenment for phonetic instructions. 

For the acoustic experiments concerning other languages, Zhang Jinyu (2012) conducted acoustic 

analysis of plosive VOT with Chinese students who had learned French, indicating that there were some 

errors that the VOTs were excessively small and tend to be affected by language negative transfer of the 

unaspiration voiceless plosives in Chinese. Su Jiajia (2012) conducted a research on the VOT variations 

of Korean plosives based on speech corpus, propounding suggestions for Korean teaching in China. For 

the acoustic experiment of Chinese English learners, a phonetic analysis was conducted by Wang Maolin 

(2009) to study the English word-middle plosives of Chinese learners. Dai Zhengzheng (2012) studied 

the plosive VOT value of advanced English learners in China. Gao Yujuan and Zhang Mengmeng (2018) 

carried out an experimental study on the acquisition of English plosives by native Chinese speakers, 

verifying Flege’s learning model theory that similar plosives are more difficult to acquire for advanced 

learners, and even “fossilization” appears. 

Societal factors will be regarded as independent variables in this study to investigate the differences in 

plosive VOT among English learners in China. Whereas, it is found that the current studies on social 



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factors affecting VOT in China primarily concentrate on regional dialect differences, a bulk of which 

discussing the language transfer. Jiang Yuyu (2015) took English learners using Wu Dialect and Jianghuai 

Mandarin as experimental subjects and conducted a comparative study on VOT between vowels, 

revealing that the VOTs of voiceless plosives in stressed syllables produced by the subjects were distinct 

from that of native speakers. An acoustic study on the English plosive production of Dalian students 

conducted by Wei Zhaozhao (2018), and found that differentiation from that of English native speakers 

existed as well, with significant pronunciation deviation mainly affected by dialectical negative transfers. 

Zhao Chenyang (2019) carried out a study on fricative VOT generated by English learners in Harbin for 

the similar purpose as the above. It is noteworthy that studies on other societal factors such as gender, 

age and university major, are insufficient. 

2.3.2 Empirical Research Abroad 

Compared with domestic studies, foreign studies started earlier and are more abundant. Different social 

factors are taken as variables in the acoustic study. 

Take gender factor as an example. Bradford L. Swartz (1992) started to survey the gender differences in 

VOT. In a videoen-doscopic study conducted by Cooke, a tendency was found that for males to produce 

voicing onset sooner than females, indicating that the distance between the vocal processes of males is 

less than females. John Ryalls, Allison Zipprer and Penelope Baldauff (1997) conducted an investigation 

of the effects of gender and race on VOT, finding that the mean VOT values of female were higher than 

that of male. Whiteside and Marshall (2001) published an article in Phonetica discussing the influences 

of gender differences on VOT. Morris, MeCrea and Herring (2008) studied the VOT difference between 

male and female on isolated syllables, and published their findings in Journal of Phonetics. Robb, Gilbert 

and Lerman (2005) investigate the influences of gender and social environment on VOT. Eunjin (2011) 

studied the gender difference of pause VOT in Korean. Bradford L. Swartz (2014) investigated gender 

differences in VOT, and so on.  

In terms of age factor, Katrin Stolten, Niclas and Kenneth (2014) studied the influences of ages and 

speaking rates on voiceless pauses of L2 learners. Judit Bona (2015) discussed the correlations between 

age and VOT. 

There are also a few relevant studies concerning regional factors. For instance, EL Zen (2020) studied 

the influences of Indonesians with different regional language backgrounds on the production of plosive 

VOT in English. 

2.4 Summary 

In summary, the acoustical researches on VOT plosives are plentiful. The domestic studies have involved 

multiple languages, and the effects of societal factors in the speech productions are further studied in the 

researches abroad. Whereas, although many previous studies have examined the VOT of plosives and 

some influential factors, few studies focus on the acoustic measurement of phonetic variations caused by 

some societal factors such as different dialects in China, majors in university, and so on. On the basis on 



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theoretical results at home and abroad, this study will combine the empirical research on English plosive 

VOT with societal factors to enrich the existing researches theoretically and practically. 

 

3. Methodology 

In this chapter, research methodology will be addressed. Specifically, experiment subjects, instruments 

and materials, procedure and analysis methods will be introduced. 

3.1 Subjects 

This research studies the correlative societal factors to the VOT of English plosives with high openness, 

and hence no specific limitations on the conditions of subjects are required. After collection, examination 

and screening, 30 valid samples were remained; it is to say, in all the recruited participants, there are 30 

speech samples which are eligible for acoustic experiments and analysis. These 30 subjects are all 

Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, whose times of English-learning fall in the range 

of 5 to 20 years, including 15 males and 15 females. Generally speaking, they all come from diverse 

regions in mainland China, master distinct dialects and have different economic backgrounds, which is 

in accordance with the randomness of social survey. What should be underscored is that EFL learners 

whose major is English in college or university are excluded in this research in order to minimize the 

influences of pertinent phonetic learning or training and certify the veracity of experiment. 

3.2 Instruments and Material 

3.2.1 Analytic Instruments 

In this study, acoustic methods are adopted to analyze the production of English plosives by Chinese EFL 

learners. The implicit features of speech sounds are difficult to be revealed by sole listening, but they can 

be represented through visualization technology. PRAAT (named “Doing Phonetics by Computer”), an 

effective acoustic analytic tool, is employed to extract and annotate the sample data displayed in the 

spectrogram and waveform of sounds. Compared with other acoustic analytic software, PRAAT is free 

of charge with a small space (less than 10m), strong universality, easy manipulation and timely update. 

It is mainly used by phoneticians for acoustic analysis, annotation, processing and synthesis of digital 

speech signals, and the generation of various speech graphs and text reports.  

Additionally, SPSS (Statistical Product Service Solutions) will be employed to assist analysis processing, 

in which descriptive and correlational analyses were conducted to evaluate the influences of different 

societal factors on VOT of English plosives. 

3.2.2 Reading Material 

As for the reading material which is displayed in the following table, regarding the feasibility, 

monosyllable words with plosives in the initial position are chosen in this study. It needs to be emphasized 

that only word-initial plosives are studied in this survey due to some arguments contending that “VOT 

focuses narrowly on the timing of voicing in word-initial plosives and does not take into account plosives 

in word-final and word-medial positions” (Docherty, 1992). 



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In the respect of the phonological structure, all of the elected words will start with a plosive, keeping a 

vowel as the nuclear and a consonant as the coda. The plosives are respectively the voiceless plosives /p/, 

/t/, /k/ and the voiced plosives /b/, /d/, /g/; and the pure vowels chosen are /i:/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ:/, /ɑ:/, 

representing the front, middle and back vowels in several, in accordance with the place of articulation of 

vowels, one perspective of vowel classification, in order to preclude the influence of vowel environment. 

Additionally, definite article “a” is placed before all the words, so as to eliminate extra interference in 

identifications of plosives like rapid speech rate or noise; therefore, the “a” has no grammatical effect 

but phonetically separative function, namely, some of these phrases have no semantic meanings. 

 

Table 2. Reading Material 

VP PP /p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ 

/i:/ a peak a team a key a beef a deed a geek 

/æ/ a pat a tap a cat a bat a dad a gap 

/ʌ/ a pub a tub a cup a bug a duck a gut 

/ɔ:/ a port a torch a call a ball a door a gorse 

/ɑ:/ a park a tar a car a bar a dark a garb 

VP: vowel phoneme 

PP: plosive phoneme 

 

3.2.3 Questionnaire  

Since this is a survey of the influences of social factors, voice sampling is solely one of the integral steps, 

and it is critical that the social conditions of the testees should be investigated.  

In this experiment, the basic information of the subjects is collected by the means of questionnaire in 

which questions are all set to survey the societal backgrounds, and the questionnaire results will 

correspond with the recordings individually. On this basis, the effects of social factors on VOT of plosives 

will be analyzed. The questions include: age, gender, place of residence, annual family income, and EFL 

duration. 

3.3 Procedure  

This experiment generally encompasses the following three steps.  

First of all, after material selection, question setting and questionnaire design, the questionnaires are 

distributed, and the subjects are recruited to complete them. 

In the second place, after opening the questionnaire, the subjects first answered the questions in several, 

and then read the materials subsequently given and record. It should be noted that due to the limitation 

of insufficient conditions like displacement and equipment lack, professional recording software such as 

PRAAT and Cool Edited cannot be adopted in the experiment, namely, the sampling will be accomplished 

by using the recording tools of the subjects’ mobile phone per se. Before recording, the subjects were 



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required to keep an opportune distance (5-10 cm) from the microphone of the phone, averting air blasting 

and keeping the volume and speed moderate to ensure the sound quality and clarity of the recording for 

subsequent analysis. Upon recording, the subjects upload the audio and submit it to complete a sample 

collection. 

Afterwards, a certain number of collected samples are integrated. The off-specification samples are 

screened, and the qualified and analyzable ones are converted and imported into PRAAT in turn. The 

spectrogram of the audio of each subjects are generated; then, the VOT value is calculated and marked. 

The two social factors selected as dependent variables in this experiment are gender and regional dialect. 

Lastly, on preliminary annotations, group the subjects and the samples in light of the above factors for 

further analysis. 

3.4 Data Analysis Methods 

Generally, quantitative and qualitative analyses are adopted as research paradigms of this survey. The 

integral part of the former is the determination of independent variables (different societal factors) and 

dependent variables (selected plosives). Qualitative analysis aimed at the comprehensive analysis of the 

research objects, combining methods of induction and deduction, to reveal the essence nexus of the two 

variables. 

As aforementioned, PRAAT and SPSS are employed as analytic tools in this study. Firstly, PRAAT is 

chiefly used for spectrogram generations and data annotations. On account of the definition and 

classification of VOT, the VOT values corresponding to each voiceless plosives and voiced plosives are 

separately calculated and recorded. While pronouncing each unit of the reading material, the vocal cord 

vibration caused by the front vowel phoneme /ə/ will be followed by the word-initial plosives, and the 

process embodies in the spectrogram as the duration from the end of the formant to the beginning of the 

subsequent first spike. After observation, the VOT values of voiceless and voiced plosives are 

individually recorded, marked and extracted. 

Upon data recording, the results are grouped in accordance with the independent variables, namely, 

different societal factors (gender, region and financial background); then, the mean values of VOT of 

each group will be calculated for respective contrast analysis; for instance, in the respect of the region 

factors, the subjects are grouped according to their resident regions and mastered dialects, and the 

inference of its effects will be made. At last, correlation analysis of the comparative results of each 

societal factor will be conducted using SPSS to complete the final evaluation of the degree of influences. 

 

4. Results and Discussions 

This chapter is to present the experimental results of VOT of English plosives of the 30 subjects and the 

analysis and discussion, to probe the influences the societal factors (gender and regional dialect) have on 

the English plosive VOT. 

 

 



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4.1 Results 

The measurements of VOT of English plosives for the 30 subjects in this experiment are displayed in the 

following table. As mentioned above, it is the voicing contrast that distinguishes the lexical meanings of 

words in English, which determines the different measurement methods and criteria for voiceless plosives 

and voiced plosives; therefore, these two sorts of plosives will be gauged and shown separately. The unit 

is ms (millisecond). 

 

Table 3. The Results of VOT of Voiceless Plosives (individual mean values) 

110.7 75.3 108.2 83.4 107.1 106.2 95.7 93.9 99.7 79.9 

82.5 83.3 119.8 92.5 70.9 94 92.5 54.9 87.6 119.7 

104.4 102.3 99.8 99.9 84.7 108.4 125 136.9 81.1 82.8 

 

Table 4. The Results of VOT of Voiced Plosives (individual mean values) 

29.3 16 17.3 15.6 14.6 15.6 18.6 13.5 13.3 10.5 

19 16 15.9 17.1 16.9 15.7 18.3 17.1 20.6 21.1 

18.3 15.7 20.5 15.9 14.3 20.6 15.1 17.6 13.5 14 

 

Two societal factors were extracted from the questionnaire questions: gender and regional dialect. And 

in this section, the influences of these two factors on the VOT of English plosives of all the subjects will 

be shown. SPSS will be employed as the analytical tool in this study, in which the methods of analysis 

will be used mainly, encompasses independent sample T test and ANOVA. 

4.1.1 Gender 

Since gender is a factor with few variables, namely, biologically, there are merely two kinds of gender, 

male or female, independent sample T test is used for analysis. 

4.1.1.1 Voiceless Plosives 

 

Table 5. The Results of VOT of Voiceless Plosives 

variable 

name 

variable 

value 

sample 

size 

mean 

value 

standard 

deviation 

tvalue p value difference 

value of the 

mean value 

Cohen’s d 

value 

mean value 

of English 

voiceless 

plosive 

male 15 93.94 14.505     



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VOT 

 female 15 98.267 19.986     

 total 30 96.103 17.298 -0.679 0.503 4.327 0.248 

 

Chart illustrations: The table above shows the results of independent sample T test, including the results 

of mean ± standard deviation, T-test results, significance p-value and Cohen’s D value of effect size. Each 

item should be estimated whether it is less than 0.05 or not. If it is significant, the null hypothesis is 

rejected, indicating that there factually is significant difference between the two groups of data (the 

difference can be analyzed according to mean ± standard deviation); otherwise, it indicates that no 

difference exists between the two groups. 

The p value of F test was 0.503>=0.05, so the statistical result was not significant, indicating that there 

was no significant difference in the mean VOT of individual voiceless plosives between male and female. 

The Cohen’s D value is 0.248, explaining a difference range (0.20, 0.50 and 0.80 correspond to small, 

medium and large critical points respectively). 

The mean values of VOT of male and female of voiceless plosives are 93.94ms and 98.267ms.  

In terms of mean VOT values and standard deviation, the VOT of English voiceless plosives is longer in 

women than in men, and the divergence is greater in woman as well. 

4.1.1.2 Voiced Plosives 

 

Table 6. The Results of VOT of Voiced Plosives 

variable 

name 

variable 

value 

sample 

size 

mean 

value 

standard 

deviation 

t value p value difference 

value of the 

mean value 

Cohen’s d 

value 

mean 

value of 

English 

voiced 

plosive 

VOT 

male 15 16.613 4.113     

 female 15 17.22 2.601     

 total 30 16.917 3.395 -0.483 0.633 0.607 0.176 



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The p value of F test is 0.633>=0.05, indicating that no significant discrepancy exists between male and 

female in the average VOT of individual voiced plosives. The Cohen’s D value is 0.176, demonstrating 

a small difference. 

The mean values of VOT of male and female of voiced plosives are 16.613ms and 17.22ms, respectively. 

On average, VOT of female is slightly longer than VOT of male; but in terms of standard deviation, the 

data distribution for men is more discrete, namely the difference is larger. 

Combining the measurement results of VOT of voiceless plosives and voiced plosives, the consequence 

that female has a longer VOT of English plosives than male can be seen. 

4.1.2  Regional Dialect 

To study Regional dialect factors, that is, to investigate whether regional dialects have an impact on 

plosive productions and which kinds of dialects have a greater influence. In this experiment, the selection 

of subjects is disordered. On the basis on the questionnaire questions “household registration location” 

and “most commonly used dialect”, six dialect types that 30 subjects have mastered and have potential 

influences on their speech output are integrated. 

In accordance with the divisions for historical and geographical reasons, there are seven dialect regions 

in China: mandarin dialect or official dialect region, Wu Dialect region, Gan Dialect region, Xiang 

Dialect region, Min Dialect region, Cantonese region and Hakka Dialect region. Each dialect area is 

divided into several sub-dialect areas; for instance, mandarin dialects can be subdivided into northeast 

Mandarin, Jiaoliao Mandarin, Beijing Mandarin, Jilu Mandarin, Central Plains Mandarin, Jianghuai 

Mandarin, Lanyin Mandarin, and southwest Mandarin. 

In the analysis, the codes of different sorts of dialects are as follows: Min Dialect is 1, Jianghuai Mandarin 

and Wu Dialect are 2, Southwest mandarin is 3, Lanyin Mandarin is 4, Zhongyuan Mandarin is 5, and 

Cantonese is 6. The codes are in line with the number of people, decreasing from 1 to 6. 

In this factor analysis, one-way ANOVA was employed to compare the mean values and standard 

deviations of plosive VOT to determine which regional dialects have relatively significant influences on 

plosive VOT, and to analyze the correlated reasons for the effects. Each item should be analyzed to check 

whether it is less than 0.05.  

4.1.2.1 Voiceless Plosives 

 

Table 7. The Results of VOT of Voiceless Plosives 

variable 

name 

variable value sample size mean value standard 

deviation 

F value p value 

 1.0 13 96.838 17.823   

mean value of 

English 

voiceless 

2.0 6 87.233 11.755   



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plosive VOT 6.0 2 95.350 18.173   

 4.0 3 104.333 4.038   

 5.0 2 83.300 17.536   

 3.0 4 107.625 25.575   

 total 30 96.103 17.298 1.037 0.419 

 

 

Figure 3. The Results of VOT of voiceless Plosives 

 

The p value of variance analysis is 0.419>0.05, indicating that the statistical result is not significant, that 

is, there is no significant difference in the mean VOT of individual voiceless plosives in these six groups 

of different regional dialects. 

From the average, the mean values of VOT of English voiceless plosives from Groups 1 to Group 6 are 

respectively 96.838ms, 87.233ms, 95.350ms, 104.333ms, 83.300ms, 107.625ms; the VOT of Group 3 is 

the longest, followed by Group 4 and then the Group 1.  

In terms of standard deviations, the value of Group 3 is the largest, 25.575ms, it is to say, the dispersion 

degree is the highest and the difference is the largest within the groups, subsequent to which is the value 

of Group 6 (18.173ms). The smallest standard deviation value is in 4, 4.038ms, indicating the smallest 

discrepancy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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4.1.2.2 Voiced Plosives 

 

 

Figure 4. The Results of VOT of Voiceless Plosives 

 

Table 8. The Results of VOT of Voiced Plosives 

variable 

name 

variable value sample size mean value standard 

deviation 

F value p value 

 1.0 13 18.269 4.013   

mean value of 

English 

voiced 

2.0 6 16.200 2.545   

plosive VOT 6.0 2 18.150 1.202   

 4.0 3 14.500 1.153   

 5.0 2 17.750 1.202   

 3.0 4 14.375 3.083   

 total 30 16.917 3.395 1.380 0.267 

 

The p value of ANOVA is 0.267>0.05, by the same token, insignificant result is shown, demonstrating 

that no significant difference in the average VOT of individual voiced plosives in these regional dialect 

groups is detected.  

From the average, the mean VOT values of voiced plosives of Group 1 to Group 6 are respectively 

18.269ms, 16.200ms, 18.150ms, 14.500ms, 17.750ms and 14.375ms. The value of Group 1 is the longest, 



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Group 6 comes the second, and then is Group 5. The value of Group 3 is the shortest. In terms of standard 

deviation, the value of Group 1 is the largest, 4.013ms, that is, the dispersion degree is the highest; and 

the subsequent one is the value of Group 3, which is 3.083ms. 

In general, in terms of English voiceless plosives, the mean VOT value of Group 3, the Southwest 

mandarin, is the longest and the difference is the largest. In the aspect of voiced plosives, Group 1 has 

the longest mean VOT value and the major divergence; the values of Group 2, however, perform 

equivalently in VOT of voiceless plosives as well as voiced plosives, with small mean value and subtle 

difference. Then, the following analysis will focus on the group 3 and the group 1 which have greater 

influences on English plosive productions. 

4.2 Discussions 

4.2.1 Gender  

In terms of English voiceless plosive VOT, from the perspective of T test, the p value is 0.503ms, 

indicating that there lays small difference in the average VOT of individual voiceless plosives between 

male and female. In the respect of mean values and standard deviations, the VOT of voiceless plosives 

in females is longer than that in males, and the difference is larger. 

In terms of English voiced plosive VOT, the p value is 0.633ms, indicating that the difference of VOT 

between male and female in voiced plosives is simply small. On average, VOT of female is slightly 

longer than VOT of male; in the aspect of standard deviations; nevertheless, the data distribution for male 

is more discrete. 

The above data shows that the VOT of no matter voiceless plosives or voiced plosives is longer in females 

than in males, which is consistent with some previous studies on the effects of gender on VOT. For 

instance, Swartz (1992) found that significantly longer VOT values produced by female speakers for 

voiced or voiceless alveolar plosives than male speakers did on the same speech production task. 

Although there lays a variety of gender-linked acoustic diversities in speech, a satisfactory explanation 

concerning the reasons why a temporal measure like VOT is supposed to be different across genders has 

not been offered. More researches into these issues become warranted; meanwhile, some reasonable 

assumptions can be also made, which are as follows. 

Physiologically, gender differences in respiratory function, laryngeal and supralaryngeal behavior for 

productions of speech have been documented. Presumably, fundamental biological discrepancies are 

reflected by the gender differences figured out in VOT production in the diverse speech subsystems. Take 

female productions of prevocalic plosives as an example, it is associated with greater oral pressure 

compared to productions of male. Additionally, a characteristic feature of female phonation noted by 

Bless and Abbs, serves as a posterior glottal opening or chink which occurs within the vocal fold closing 

duration and results in a leak of airstream into the supralaryngeal space. Within the context of female 

VOT productions, there are presumably more air escapes into the supralaryngeal space prior to vowel 

productions, leading in greater oral pressure for plosives compared to male addressers. The greater oral 

pressure results in longer intervals between plosive burst and voicing onset (Michael, 2005). 



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Although biological differences can be the underlying consequences of gender differences in VOT 

productions, there can be some sociophonetic factors that presumably contribute to VOT differences as 

well. For instance, VOT is correlated negatively with increases in speech rates or word durations; it is to 

say, slower speaking and word producing with a longer duration can result in longer VOT values, 

especially for voiceless plosives. Thereby, gender differences would also be conspicuous in VOT 

productions if they exist in speaking rates. Cheshire (2005) stated that females and males differ in their 

general pronunciation patterns, with females have the inclination to employ more carefully articulated 

speeches and adopt this speaking style, and thus, for the sex-related VOT patterns, it is possible that 

speaking rate differences and word duration are the other responsible reasons in addition to biological 

discrepancies. 

4.2.2 Regional Dialect 

The above data shows that in terms of regional factors, the p values of VOT of voiceless and voiced 

plosives are 0.419 and 0.267, being both larger than 0.05, indicating that there is no significant difference 

among the dialect groups. Nonetheless, what is noteworthy is that, in the process of comparative analysis, 

it can be found that the mean VOT of plosives in Southwest mandarin group and Min dialect group are 

relatively longer, and the corresponding dispersion degrees, namely, the differences are greater; hence, 

the pronunciation characteristics of the aforementioned two dialects and the potential reasons for their 

correlated influences will be analyzed in the following part. 

It should be emphasized that China dialects are variants of standard Chinese. Chinese belongs to Sino-

Tibetan language family, and English is an Indo-European language; thereby, their phonological systems 

are distinct. In terms of consonants, although Lisker classifies both Chinese and English as second-

category languages according to the parameter VOT, they factually have different distinguishing features. 

Specifically, there is no voiced consonant in Chinese, of which the word meanings are determined by 

aspiration or not, and [b], [d], [g] in Chinese is estimated to be close to [p], [t], [k] in English. For English, 

the distinguishing feature is the voicing contrast, rather than aspiration contrast. Studies have shown that 

the interference of Chinese initials to English consonant productions is greater than that of finals to 

English vowel pronunciations. 

4.2.2.1 Southwest Mandarin 

Southwest Mandarin is a branch of Mandarin Chinese, being mainly distributed in Sichuan, Chongqing, 

Yunnan and Guizhou areas, as well as most of Hubei, northwestern Hunan, northern Guangxi and 

southern Shaanxi, with some dialect islands in other regions. The definition of Southwest Mandarin given 

in The Atlas of Chinese Language is “the Chinese dialect used in southwest China and the surrounding 

areas thereof, with entering tone assigned to a tone value similar to the one used commonly in Chengdu, 

Wuhan, Chongqing, Changde, Guiyang, Kunming, Guilin”.  

English has 28 consonant phonemes, and Southwest mandarin has 28 to 34 consonants. Although some 

initial consonants are equivalent to English consonants in written form, they are not thoroughly 

corresponding; and their pronunciation characteristics are also distinct (Zhu, 2010). 



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In terms of initials, one of the major characteristics of Southwest Mandarin is that there is no distinction 

between blade-alveolar and cacuminal, in some cases, cacuminal even can be regarded to be absent. /zh/, 

/ch/ and /sh/ can be all supplanted by /z/, /c/ and /s/. For example, “sichuan” is pronounced as “sicuan”; 

“zhi chi” is pronounced as “zi ci”; “li shi” is pronounced as “li si” (Zheng, Li, & Qing, 2012, p. 92). In a 

precious interview conducted in dialect, the interviewees described themselves as rarely having tongue 

tip roll-up in daily communication, with a generally low tongue position and relaxed facial muscles. 

Similar pronunciation is also shown in the initial /r/. In Southwestern Mandarin, the tongue is almost not 

roll-up during the pronunciation of /r/, which then sounds similar to /z/. In addition, in this sort of dialect, 

most /b/ and /p/ can be distinguishable, but there are a few exceptions; for instance, generally, “pubian” 

will be often pronounced as “pupian” (Zhu, 2010). 

Thereby, it can be inferred that this pronunciation habit of initials in Southwest Mandarin, namely, the 

inclination of turning voiceless consonants into voiced ones, has a potential influence on the 

pronunciation of voiceless plosives. The phenomenon is consistent with the results of this experiment 

which shows that the VOT of English voiceless plosives in Southwest Mandarin is the longest, while that 

of voiced plosives is the shortest. 

4.2.2.2 Min Dialect 

Min Dialect, also dubbed as Min Chinese, is primarily distributed in Fujian, southern Zhejiang, Taiwan, 

Guangdong, Hainan and some regions overseas. 

Li Rong (1989) pointed out that the ancient total voiced consonants in Fujian Min Dialect have gradually 

realized devocalization; nowadays, whereas, during the pronunciation of plosives and fricative, 

“aspiration is absent in more characters”, which contradicts the convention that many ancient total voiced 

consonants are aspirated in most Fujian languages. 

Li Xiaofan and Xiang Mengbing (2009) also pointed out that “in ancient Min Dialect, the total voiced 

consonants have become devoicing, and now most of the plosives and affricates have no aspiration, with 

few have aspiration.” This indicates that speakers of Min Dialect tend to make sound unaspriated and of 

vocal cord vibration. Take Hokkien (southern Fujian dialect) for example, in accordance with “there was 

no dentilabial consonant sound in ancient times”, the dentilabial initial sound /f/ was pronounced as /p/ 

or /b/ in ancient ages (Wu, 2014). This phonetic convention is maintained until the present in Hokkien 

vernacular. For instance, “fan” in standard Chinese is pronounced as “ben” in southern Fujian dialect. To 

give another example, in Chaozhou dialect which belongs to Min Dialect, /b/ and /g/ phonemes are 

accompanied by pre-nasalization during the pronunciation (Liu, 2009, p. 76). On account of the 

articulatory position of the lips, /b/ phonemes are supposed to be articulated as [mb]; and due to the 

velarization, phoneme /g/ should be added a diacritic and recorded as [ŋg] in narrow transcription (Liu, 

2009, p. 76). In general, the tendency of voicing and nasalization will presumably lengthen the VOT of 

voiced plosives of Min Dialect speakers; in other words, the vocal cords vibration duration will be longer 

while pronouncing voiced plosives. 



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Additionally, phoneme simplification occurs in Southeast Asian English under the influences of Min 

dialect. The most significant factor in word localization is phoneme recombination which can affects the 

whole lexical system. In this case, the plosives subsequent to the consonant in Southeast Asian English 

are often left unvoiced. In places like Myanmar and the Philippines, even voiceless and voiced 

consonants are not distinguished, which is in line with the so-called “economic principle” that the 

ancestors of Min Dialect region, who migrated to Southeast Asia, simplified English as they learned it 

(Chen, 2006, p. 124). This also explains the relatively longer VOT of English voiced plosives of the 

subjects who come from the Min Dialect region in this experiment. 

 

5. Conclusions 

This chapter is to introduce the main findings of this experiment, some theoretical and pedagogical 

implications, and the limitations this study has. 

5.1 Findings 

The major findings yielded from this study can be summarized as follows. 

5.1.1 Gender Factor 

As the statistics showed in chapter four, there is little difference between VOT of English plosives of 

male and female; however, it is noteworthy that female VOT is longer than male VOT, which is consistent 

with some previous studies. The underlying causes are twofold.  

Firstly, there are fundamental biological differences in the various speech subsystems. The physiological 

structure of female phonation is a posterior glottal opening which occurs during vocal fold closing; hence, 

it is possible that more air escapes into the supralaryngeal space prior to vowel production compared to 

male speakers.  

Secondly, psychosocially, there are suggestions that sex differences in VOT may be due to a 

sociophonetic influence, whereby the differences can reflect conscious or unconscious manipulations of 

speech patterns to overtly or tacitly to convey gender identity, one of which is the speaking rate. 

Presumably, women will prefer slower speech and lengthened word duration in order to makes utterances 

more intelligible and makes themselves more dignified, and maintain their gender identities and images, 

both of which can help produce longer VOTs. 

5.1.2 Dialectical Factor 

Languages do not exist in isolation but in interaction, of which language transfer is a manifestation, and 

an integral factor affecting second language acquisition. Phonology of Chinese is distinct from that of 

English; consequently, in SLA, English learners will tend to be affected by their dialects, transfer the 

dialectal features to English and neglect the differences between two phonetic systems, thus affecting the 

speech output. 

In the light of statistics in chapter four, based on the regional division of Chinese dialects, to some extent, 

some influences dialects have on the VOT of plosives can be found. Insofar this experiment, the effects 

of Southwest Mandarin and Min Dialect on English VOT is mainly analyzed. The results show that the 



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voiceless plosive VOT is the longest and the counterpart VOT is the shortest. Owing to tendency of de-

cacuminal and devocalization, the production of English voiceless plosives can be presumably affected; 

that is, to lengthen the time from voiceless sound blasting to vocal cord vibration.  

Secondly, the average VOT value of voiced plosives is the highest in the subjects using Min Dialect. 

Combined with the dialectical pronunciation characteristics, it can be seen that the speakers tend to make 

unaspirated sounds or vocal cord vibration sounds. Inclination of pre-nasalization can lengthen vocal 

cord vibration time as well, resulting in a longer VOT of voiced plosives. Additionally, influenced by 

immigration and phonetic changes, phoneme simplification can lead the sounds less voiceless and more 

voiced. 

5.2 Implications 

The implications of this study are primarily at the theoretical and pedagogical aspects. 

Theoretically, from the perspective of research design, firstly the acoustic parameter VOT is adopted in 

this study to investigate the group differences of English plosives, which can provide some theoretical 

references for acoustic researches, and also offer some ideas for the future researches on English plosives. 

In the second place, this study introduces social factors investigation into phonetics research, combining 

theoretical knowledge and research methods of phonetics and sociology, which can provide innovation 

for the subsequent studies. In addition, this experiment, with reference to Labov’s experimental model, 

can boost the generalization of sociolinguistic theories and research methodologies. 

Pedagogically, from the research results, there are primarily the following three implications. First, in 

English teaching, different kinds of students should be coped with flexibly. Instructors are supposed to 

carry out targeted teaching and training of students. The results show that although significant, some 

discrepancies factually exist in the plosive VOTs of students of different genders and dialects. In these 

cases, teachers should not cut across the board and should maximize the effects of English teaching 

according to the specific situation. Secondly, affected by language transfer, some errors or mistakes 

presumably occur during the English learning of university students. In phonetics teaching, instructors 

can adopt the theories of contrastive analysis, interlanguage and continuum to maximize the effects of 

language positive transfer and for the other, actively correct English pronunciation of students and 

aggrandize comprehensible phonetic input, minimizing the impact of negative language transfer. Some 

practical tools such as PRAAT can be applied as well, to present of the acoustic features of English 

segments to students and moreover, correct students’ articulations. Third, the English curriculum designs 

should be optimized. Universities should attach attention to English teaching; specifically, more 

reasonable English class settings and designs, and larger allocation of English instructors should be 

offered.  

5.3 Limitations 

Although this study provides some implications, there are still limitations. 

Firstly, the sample size of this experiment is not large enough, with the number of 30. More eligible 

samples are needed if much efficiency and reliability are required. In this study, the validity of the main 



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findings needs substantiating by future research which can extend the scope of participants and gain 

much accuracy. 

Secondly, some errors may exist in the sampling and measurement. In terms of sampling, due to the 

limitations of epidemic and geography, experiments can only be carried out on the Internet; therefore, 

professional recording software cannot be employed. And, the recording equipment and methods of each 

subject may be different, which can bring some errors and influence analysis. In the respect of 

measurement, other environmental factors can be the inferences to the subjects, and some samples have 

obvious striations in the spectrogram. More professional equipment should be employed in future studies 

to minimize experimental errors. 

Thirdly, on account of the constraint on conditions, other potential influential factors are not taken into 

consideration in this survey. The independent variables of this study are two social factors: gender and 

regional dialect; however, the results may be interfered by other subjective factors, such as individual 

speaking habits and diverse learning levels. Afterwards, the scope of factors can be extended to conduct 

phonetic experiments with higher objectivity and pertinence. 

 

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