英文母音系統中有鬆母音、緊母音之別，但華語母音系統中缺乏此對比。中介音韻學實證研究多著墨於華語母語者學習英語母音時之發音困難，少有分析英語母音感知區辨與同化之模式。本研究實驗一探討：華語母語者感知英語母音之區辨模式；實驗二檢視：華語母語者如何將英語母音分類，並與華語母音同化。感知實驗結果支持「語音學習模式」(Flege 1995)，但與「感知同化模式」(Best 1995)預測略異，本文指出「感知同化模式」之限制，即：單從第一語音與第二語音間之同化模式無法準確解釋實驗結果；引述標誌現象，本文建議一個三角互動模組，以闡述第二語音感知之運作。

The tense-lax vowel contrast, which is present in English but not in Mandarin, has been extensively studied in the interlanguage phonology for Chinese-speaking learners of English. Much research has been dedicated to this language production, but few studies focus on L2 learners' discriminatory and assimilatory patterns of English vowels. Experiment 1 of this study investigated Chinese-speaking learners' English vowel discrimination. Experiment 2 examined how these learners classified English vowels and assimilated them to Mandarin phonetic categories. The current findings, though supporting the Speech Learning Model (Flege 1995), were in disagreement with the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) (Best 1995). To draw on the facts from markedness effects, the researcher argues that the assimilatory patterns between L1-L2 segments in PAM may not fully account for the perception saliency hierarchy and suggests one tri-dimensional model for interpreting L2 vowel percep