MLAT Phonetic Coding & Sound Discrimination 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In the MLAT phonetic script, the symbol 'ð' represents which English sound?
- The 'th' in 'thin'
- The 'th' in 'this' (Correct answer)
- The 'd' in 'dog'
- The 'z' in 'zoo'
Correct answer: The 'th' in 'this'
The symbol 'ð' (eth) represents the voiced 'th' sound as heard in 'this,' 'that,' and 'them.'
Question 2: Which pair of English words illustrates a minimal pair based solely on vowel length?
- bit / bat
- seat / sit
- cat / cut
- ship / sheep (Correct answer)
Correct answer: ship / sheep
Ship /ɪ/ and sheep /iː/ differ only in vowel length and tenseness, making them a classic minimal pair for vowel discrimination.
Question 3: A learner consistently confuses /r/ and /l/ sounds when learning English. This difficulty most likely reflects a deficit in which MLAT subskill?
- Rote learning ability
- Grammatical sensitivity
- Phonetic coding ability (Correct answer)
- Inductive language learning
Correct answer: Phonetic coding ability
Phonetic coding ability is the capacity to identify, encode, and remember foreign sounds, and difficulty distinguishing /r/ from /l/ directly tests this skill.
Question 4: If a spoken syllable has a high pitch that falls sharply, which suprasegmental feature is being described?
- Stress
- Vowel quality
- Tone (Correct answer)
- Aspiration
Correct answer: Tone
Tone refers to the use of pitch variation at the syllable level to distinguish meaning, as found in tonal languages like Mandarin.
Question 5: In MLAT-style phonetic tasks, a written nonsense word is read aloud and then presented again later. This tests the learner's ability to:
- Infer grammatical rules
- Associate sounds with written symbols (Correct answer)
- Apply morphological knowledge
- Recall semantic meanings
Correct answer: Associate sounds with written symbols
The task measures the ability to encode an unfamiliar sound sequence into a written symbol system and recognize it again — core phonetic coding.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of a voiced consonant?
- /p/
- /f/
- /s/
- /v/ (Correct answer)
Correct answer: /v/
The sound /v/ is voiced because the vocal cords vibrate during its production, unlike its voiceless counterpart /f/.
Question 7: When two words differ by only one phoneme and that change alters meaning (e.g., 'pan' vs. 'ban'), these words are called:
- Homophones
- Minimal pairs (Correct answer)
- Allophones
- Diphthongs
Correct answer: Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs are word pairs that differ by exactly one phoneme, demonstrating that the contrasting sounds are functionally distinct in that language.
MLAT Phonetic Coding & Sound Discrimination 2
In the MLAT phonetic script, the symbol 'ð' represents which English sound?