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earners were hardly able to produce English-like rhythm patterns.For example, there were few reduced vowels and stressed syllables in their speech.And they produced each syllable with almost equal weight.Mok & Dellwo (2008) applied the acoustic rhythm measurement of PairwiseVariability Index (PVI) to measure the interval length parameters of vowels andconsonants of Cantonese English and Mandarin English. The results showed that theabove two varieties were obviously syllable-timed compared with those in BonnTempo Corpus (German, English, Italian and French).
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework........17
3.1 Related Variables of Rhythm...... 17
3.1.1 Stress.... 17
3.1.2 Pause.....18
3.1.3 Speech Rate..........19
3.1.4 Vowel Reduction and Lengthening...... 20
3.2 Autosegmental-metrical theory (AM theory)..... 20
3.2.1 To BI Labeling System..........21
3.2.2 IVi E Labeling System.......... 22
Chapter4 Methodology........... 27
4.1 Research Questions.....27
4.2 Reading Materials.......27
4.3 Subjects.......30
4.4 Data Processing...........30
Chapter 5 Analysis of the Rhythmic Features......31
5.1The Rhythm Pattern Located by %V and ΔC...... 31
5.2 Analysis of Stress........42
5.3 Analysis of Pause........52
5.4 Analysis of Speech Rate..... 58

Chapter 5 Analysis of the Rhythmic Features

Based on Ramus’ IM (Interval measures) model and Dellwo’s method of speednormalization, this chapter intends to present a comparative research of Englishrhythmic features between native speakers and Chinese Northeastern English learners.

5.1The Rhythm Pattern Located by %V and ΔC
Ramus, Nespor and Mehler (1999) analyzed the data from eight differentlanguages and proposed some variables to measure the duration of the consonant andvowel in the sentences after segmentation. These interval measures can help judge therhythmic patterns of different language as was mentioned in the literature review andproved efficient in previous researches at home and abroad. Their studies showed thatacoustic measures in the the speech could indicate the rhythm patterns of differentlanguages to some extent. This chapter adopts Ramus’ IM (Interval measures) modeland metrics %V, ΔC, ΔV to measure the duration of vocalic and consonatal intervals.Since speech rate may influence the result and analysis of the study, Dellwo’s methodof speed normalization was taken to normalize the speech rate among the subjects.The metrics of ΔC and ΔV were normalized into Varco V and Varco C with speech ratetaken into account.
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Conclusion

English and Chinese belong to different language families which differ greatly inpronunciation habits as well as prosodic characteristics. The fact that English is astress-timed language while Chinese a syllable-timed language makes the rhythmacquisition especially difficult for Chinese English learners. They can pronounceevery word correctly but they can’t reach the native-like fluency for lack of rhythm.Learners’ poor performance in rhythm may not only cause some misunderstandingsbut also even block successful communication. It has been a great concern forteachers and learners through the ages.The present study focuses on the rhythmic features of Chinese NortheasternEnglish learners compared with the American na