This study investigated the relations among speaking styles, Chinese ESL learners' attention to the voiceless interdental fricative ([θ]) sound, the learners' perception of English native speaker's speech, learners' self-perception, and the learners' production. Thirty-four Chinese ESL learners participated in three production tasks and two perception tasks. A stimulated recall, questionnaire, and interview were also conducted. The results of both quantitative and qualitative studies showed that a) the production accuracy of [θ], and the amount of attention paid to it, were positively related to the difficulties of the speech styles; b) the more demanding the speech style was and the less salient the word position was, the less attention was paid to the production of [θ] and the less accurately it was produced; c) the participants produced [θ] better than they perceived it; d) the participants' NS-perception was better than their self-perception.
Read
