López Samit, Jaïr2024-05-202024-05-202020-06https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/13281This study analysed extant literature on vowel perceptual proximity in order to identify the difficulties encountered by Catalan and Spanish L1 speakers in the perception and production of English L2 vowels. As Catalan has a larger vowel inventory than Spanish that includes two additional open mid vowels /ɛ ɔ/ and a central weak vowel /ə/ which is very similar to the most used English vowel /ə/ (schwa), it was initially hypothesised that it would be easier for Catalan than for Spanish speakers to perceive and pronounce English vowels. The central space and the size of the vowel inventories of these languages, and the fact that all Catalan speakers are early bilinguals were found to be key factors that supported this prediction.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessproyecto fin de carreraL2 acquisitionpronunciationperceptual proximityCatalan vowelsEnglish vowelsSpanish vowels