British and American accent features in the pronunciation of Estonian learners of English

Abstract

This thesis examines how Estonian learners of English produce five phonetic features associated with Standard Southern British (SSB) and general American (GenAm). The features are rhoticity, t-voicing, and three vowel contrasts (PALM/TRAP, LOT/PALM, THOUGHT/PALM). The study also considers how students’ self-reported accent preferences align with their actual pronunciation. Fifteen first-year students at the University of Tartu were analysed through recordings of Arthur the Rat. Findings show that while students often favour one variety, their speech blends features from both. Rhoticity was the most consistently realised feature, while vowel contrasts showed the most variation. Keywords: pronunciation, phonetics, British English, American English