MLAT Phonetic Coding & Sound Discrimination 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which word contains a diphthong?
- bit
- bed
- boy (Correct answer)
- bus
Correct answer: boy
The word 'boy' contains the diphthong /ɔɪ/, a gliding vowel sound that moves from one position to another within a single syllable.
Question 2: In the MLAT phonetic coding section, a student hears a word and must underline the syllable that matches a stressed sound. What aspect of phonology is being assessed?
- Morphological awareness
- Phonemic segmentation
- Suprasegmental perception (Correct answer)
- Syntax knowledge
Correct answer: Suprasegmental perception
Identifying stressed syllables involves perceiving suprasegmental features — patterns of stress, rhythm, and pitch that extend over more than one sound segment.
Question 3: The sounds /p/ and /b/ in English differ primarily in which phonetic feature?
- Place of articulation
- Manner of articulation
- Voicing (Correct answer)
- Nasality
Correct answer: Voicing
Both /p/ and /b/ are bilabial stops, but /b/ is voiced (vocal cords vibrate) while /p/ is voiceless.
Question 4: A sound that is produced with airflow through the nose, such as /m/, /n/, or /ŋ/, is called:
- A fricative
- A nasal (Correct answer)
- A lateral
- A glide
Correct answer: A nasal
Nasal consonants are produced with the velum lowered, allowing air to pass through the nasal cavity instead of solely through the mouth.
Question 5: On the MLAT, examinees listen to a key word spoken in a made-up language and must identify it when they hear it again among distractors. This primarily measures:
- Semantic memory
- Short-term phonetic memory (Correct answer)
- Long-term vocabulary storage
- Grammatical rule application
Correct answer: Short-term phonetic memory
This task requires holding an unfamiliar sound pattern in short-term memory and matching it accurately — the essence of phonetic coding ability.
Question 6: Which of the following sound sequences would be most difficult to discriminate for a native English speaker hearing them for the first time?
- cat / bat
- light / right (Correct answer)
- pin / bin
- see / sea
Correct answer: light / right
The /l/ vs. /r/ distinction is particularly challenging for speakers of languages that do not contrast these sounds, making 'light/right' harder than familiar English contrasts.
Question 7: When a spoken syllable receives greater loudness, length, and pitch prominence compared to surrounding syllables, it is said to carry:
- Aspiration
- Lexical stress (Correct answer)
- Vowel reduction
- Syllable onset
Correct answer: Lexical stress
Lexical stress is the emphasis placed on a particular syllable in a word, marked by increased loudness, duration, and often higher pitch.
MLAT Phonetic Coding & Sound Discrimination 3
Which word contains a diphthong?