Catalan learners of English as a Second Language: perception and production of the Schwa

This work is mainly focussed on the schwa phoneme. It is a critical review of its singularities regarding English and Catalan, and gives account of its use at segmental and supra-segmental levels. Throughout the essay, several instances are given in order to show the similarities between both languages concerning the schwa. The paper is divided into two major parts: a theoretical and a practical approach. The theoretical one is a critical review of several aspects such as vowel reduction and stress timing, among others. The practical approach, which involves a test and a survey, is based on various activities designed specifically to evaluate the perception and production of the schwa among Majorcan learners of English as a Second Language.