The Problems of Front Vowel Production by Elementary EFL learners
Introduction
As the world develops into a global village, the importance of English as the
international language has been accentuated. People with different language
backgrounds utilize English to exchange information and share ideas in business,
culture, politics, etc. It has been found that the speakers with accurate pronunciation
especially enjoy better chances of sufficiently expressing themselves, being
understood by interlocutors, owning higher emotional quotient and motivation in
working and learning (Wu, 1993). Alternatively, those with poor pronunciation tend
to experience the problems such as ineffectual speech performance, complete
breakdown in communication, anticipatory-apprehensive listener reactions, negative
judgments about personal qualities, and pejorative stereotyping (Skaer, 1984).
Undoubtedly, incomprehensible pronunciation hinders communication. Finding
out the cause of the incomprehension may provide solution for inaccurate
pronunciation. Much of the poor intelligibility should be accounted for by the
ignorance in teaching, the restrains in learning the second language, and the
interferences from the sound system of mother language (L1).
The ignorance of pronunciation teaching stems from Krashen’s viewpoint in
1981, which asserted that ‘pronunciation training would either have no influence or,
even worse, would interfere with the natural, unconscious process needed for the
acquisition of pronunciation’. It caused the trend that favored grammar and
vocabulary teaching and neglected pronunciation. Lin, et al (1995) explicated the
predicaments of pronunciation teaching in Taiwan: (a) students paid little attention to
pronunciation due to few tests that assessed speaking ability; (b) teachers lacked the
knowledge to teach pronunciation. According to Trammell’s study in 1993, new
teaching methods, such as the Communicative and Acquisition Approaches, also
deemphasized instruction in pronunciation. Due to the lack of attention and
instruction, the importance of accurate pronunciation has been much ignored in the
classroom. The circumstance then poses an important question: how does one
successfully communicate with others if the pronunciation is not even correct?
Namely, it is essential for teachers to become conscious about students’ problems in
pronunciation, in order to offer help in their practices of comprehensible English
The goals of the present study are therefore to explore whether Elementary EFL
learners can correctly pronounce the five front vowels / i , I , e, ε, æ / and to find out
the problems in pronouncing these English vowels.
1
Research Questions
This present study aims to examine the following research questions:
(a) What are the problems for Elementary EFL learners in pronouncing the five
English Front vowels?
(b) What are the causes of their pronunciation problems？
Literature Review
This section reviews literature relevant to the research topic. Brief introductions
of the vowels in English and Mandarin are first conducted, followed by a comparison
of the vowel systems across the two languages.
Vowel System of English
On the basis of Teng’s categorization of English vowels (2004), there are
fourteen monophthong vowels, which can be distinguished by the following three
dimensions: tongue frontness, tongue height, and tenseness, as shown in Table 1.
Tongue frontness refers to the part of tongue involved when a vowel is articulated,
which divides the vowels into three categories--front, central, and back. Tongue
height indicates how high the tongue is raised in pronunciation—high, mid, low. In
addition to the tongue movement, tenseness is another feature for distinction. From
Table 1, there is a pair of tense and lax phonemes in each of the following cells,
high-front, mid-front, high-back, and mid-back. Respectively, they are /i, I/, /e, ε/,
/u, U/, and /o, /. Tense vowels require greater tension of muscle, which stretches the
articulation of sounds to more extreme peripheral positions, much different from
centered lax vowels.
Table 1 Vowels of English
High
Mid
Front
Central
Back
Unrounded
Unrounded
rounded
Tense
i
u
Lax
I
U
Tense
e
o
Lax
ε
Low
æ
Note. From Lee (2007,p. 23).
2
a
Vowel System of Mandarin Chinese
Table 2 demonstrates the vowel system of Mandarin Chinese by Teng (2004).
The seven simple vowels in Mandarin Chinese can also be categorized by the two
dimensions used for English vowels—tongue height and tongue frontness. However,
tenseness does not play a role here. Instead, lip rounding serves as a feature for
distinction of the vowels with the same tongue movement, such as /i/ and /y/. It is
consistent with Lee’s (2007) categorization of the Mandarin vowels--tongue height,
tongue advancement, and lip rounding.
Table 2 Mandarin Simple Vowels
High
Front
ㄧ (i) /ㄩ(y)
Mid
ㄝ(e)
Central
Back
ㄨ(U)
ㄜ/ㄛ( )
ㄚ(a)
Low
spread/round
spread
spread/round
Note. From Teng (2004,p. 36).
Comparison of English and Mandarin Vowel Systems
There are five vowels common to the languages of Mandarin and American
English (Chen et al.2001), including /i, e, u, o, a/. Alternatively, the remaining six
English vowels that do not occur in Mandarin are /I, ε, æ,
, U,
/. It is
predictable that the L2 American English vowels not found in Mandarin are likely to
be produced inaccurately by Mandarin speakers. Flege et al (1997) confirmed the
prediction by measuring Fﾟand F1, F2 frequencies of the four vowels / i, I, ε, æ /
produced by the speakers of the two languages, and found that Mandarin subjects
showed the least accuracy in producing vowels not found in L1, especially, / I, ε, æ /.
A number of studies have examined the influence of Mandarin as L1 on English
as L2. The lack of the feature ‘tenseness’ has been considered one of the major causes
to inaccuracy (Tiee, 1969, Beebe, 1984). Lee (2007) compared the vowel system of
English and Mandarin, and noted that the lack of the distinguishing
feature ’tenseness’ in Mandarin caused the Mandarin speakers to ignore the
distinctions of tense and lax vowels when speak English. Chang (1987) observed that
the English diphthongs tend to be shortened by Chinese speakers since the Chinese
diphthongs have shorter duration. He also found that the English vowel /æ/, which
does not occur in Chinese, tends to be nasalized by Chinese speakers.
Wang and Heuven (2004) conducted a contrastive analysis of English vowels
produced by the speakers of different language backgrounds. They found that Chinese
speakers are much more easily confused than the Dutch speakers in terms of vowel
3
perception and production. In other words, language backgrounds exert a strong
influence on foreign languages.
As there are phonological differences in Mandarin Chinese and English, Chinese
learners of English are expected to meet a number of difficulties, as noted by Chang
(1987):
The phonological system of Chinese is very different from that of English. Some
English phonemes do not have Chinese counterparts and are hard to learn. Others
resemble Chinese phonemes but are not identical to them in pronunciation, and
thus cause confusion. Stress, intonation and juncture are all areas of difficulty. In
general, Chinese speakers find English hard to pronounce, and have trouble
learning to understand the spoken language (pp224-225).
Methodology
Subjects
The subjects consist of 17 sixth graders that had learned English for three years.
They were randomly selected from Shin-Kong elementary school in Kaohsiung City,
a school of approximately 1700 students, 52 classes, an average of 30-36 students in
each class.
Procedure
The subjects were recorded individually in a quiet room. They were required to
read out a list of word sets that contained the five English front vowels, as
exemplified in Table 3.
Table 3 Examples of Word Set
/i /
/I/
/e/
/ε/
/æ/
1.beat
2.bit
3.bait
4.bet
5.bat
6.meat
7.mitt
8.mate
9.met
10.mat
As the subjects read out the list, the researcher conducted real-time evaluation of their
pronunciation.
Instruments
The instruments in the present study comprise a digital pen recorder (the
Panasonic RR-US450 IC), a computer and Praat, a free software that allows for
phonetic analysis on sound data so that the grader can make precise judgments on the
recording.
4
Data Collection
The recording was conducted at the subjects’ school.
Data Analysis
The subjects were required to read out a list of words, which in turn were judged
as "right" or "wrong" by two school teachers with EFL teaching experiences. Both of
the English teachers are female and have taught English in Taiwan for more than five
years. They listened to the recordings and evaluated the pronunciation as correct or
incorrect. In order for precise judgment, the WAV files were with Praat. After the
evaluation, correctness rate of the five English front vowels / i, I, e, ε, æ / was
calculated by the two graders.
Result and Discussions
The followings present the results of the analyzed recordings by human rating.
They will be presented with tables or figures, supplemented by descriptions and
explanation.The correctness rate of the word sets obtained for the vowels / i, I, e,ε, æ /
are reported in Table 4.
Table 4 The Correctness Rate of the Word Set Obtained for the Five Front
Vowels
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Word Set
beat
bit
bait
bet
bat
meat
mitt
mate
Right
14
15
7
14
10
14
13
6
n=17
Wrong
3
2
10
3
7
3
4
11
Correctness
Rate%
82.4
No.
Word Set
n=17
Right
Wrong
Correctness
Rate%
88.2
41.2
82.4
58.8
82.4
76.5
9
met
13
4
10
mat
10
7
11
heed
13
4
12
hid
12
5
13
hayed
9
8
14
head
15
2
76.5
58.8
76.5
70.6
52.9
88.2
35.3
15
had
11
6
64.7
Table 4 shows that the word “bit” and ‘head” have the highest correctness rate,
88.2% , and the word “ mate“ has the lowest correctness rate,35.3%.
5
Table 5 The Correctness Rate of the Five Front Vowels
The front vowel
i
I
e
ε
æ
Word Set
beat,meat,heed
bit,mitt,hid
bait,mate,
hayed
bet,met,
head
bat,mat,had
Right
41
40
22
42
21
Wrong
10
11
29
9
30
80.4
78.4
43.1
82.4
41.2
Total=51
Correctness
Rate%
65
Average Rate%
Table 5 shows that the vowel /ε/ has the highest correctness rate, followed by the
vowels /i/,/I/ and /e/. The /ε/ sound poses few difficulties for the sixth graders. The
vowel /æ/ has the lowest correctness rate among the five front vowels. The average
correctness rate of English front vowels is 65%. The table clearly shows that out of all
the front vowels, the low front vowel /æ/, with the correctness rate as low as 41.2%, is
the most difficult one to pronounce.
Table 6 The Scale of Difficulty in Producing the Five English Front Vowels
Vowel
Correctness
percentage
Difficulty Scale
/æ/
41.2%
1
/e/
43.1%
2
/I/
78.4%
3
/i/
80.4%
4
/ε/
82.4%
5
The Most Difficult
The Easiest
The vowel /ε/, compared to the other vowels, tends to be pronounced correctly
by the subjects. Namely, the vowel /ε/ is relatively easy for the subjects to pronounce.
There seems to be no difficulty for the subjects to pronounce this sound in the present
study. The vowel /æ/, compared to the other vowels, tends to be pronounced
incorrectly by the subjects. In other words, the vowel /æ/ is relatively difficult for the
subjects to pronounce. It is consistent with Tiee’s study (1969) that reported the sound
to be the most difficult vowel to pronounce for Mandarin speakers since there is no
equivalent sound in Mandarin Chinese.
6
Table 7 Illustrated the Substitutions of Each Vowel
Table 7
Substitution of Each Vowel Error type
Vowel
/i/
/I/
/e/
/ε/
/æ/
Others
/i/
/
7.8%
(4/51)
0%
(0/51)
7.8%
(4/51)
0%
(0/51)
/aI/ 3.9%
(2/51)
/I/
11.8%
(6/51)
/
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
/aI/ 7.8%
(4/51)
/e/
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
/
27.5%
(14/51)
27.5%
(14/51)
0%
(0/51)
5.8%
5.8%
0%
7.8%
0%
(3/51)
(3/51)
(0/51)
(4/51)
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)
0%
(0/51)/
0%
(0/51)
/ε/
/æ/
/
33%
(17/51)
Table 7 illustrates the error type of substitution. For the vowel, /i/, about 7.8% of
the pronounced total was mispronounced as /I/ and 7.8% was mispronounced as /ε/.
The word heed /hid/ being pronounced as /hId/ or /hεd/ is an example. For the vowel,
/I/, about 11.8% of the pronounced total was replaced by /i/ and 7.8% by /aI/.
Examples collected include bit /bIt/ pronounced as /bit/, and hid /hId/ as /haid/. For
the vowel, /e/, about 27.5% of the pronounced total was mispronounced as /ε/ and
27.5% as /æ/. The word bait/bet/ being pronounced as /bεt/ or /bæt/ is the example.
For the vowel, /ε/,about 5.8% of the pronounced total was mispronounced as /i/, 5.8%
as /I/, and 7.8% as /æ/. Instances include met/mεt/ mispronounced as /mit/ or /mIt/,
and bet/bεt/ as /bæt/. For the vowel, /æ/, about 33% of the pronounced total was
mispronounced as /ε/. The bat /bæt/ being mispronounced as /bεt/ is one of the
instances. When producing /I/, two students mispronounced the English word of mitt
and hid as /maIt/ and /haId/ respectively. In considering of the causes of the error, it
might be that the participant mistook bite for bit and mite for mitt by accident.
The individual error examples are elaborated as below in order of difficulty.
/æ/ sound
(1)bat /bæt/ → /bεt/
(2)mat /mæt/ → /mεt/
(3)had /hæd/ → /hεd/
The /æ/ sound is the most difficult vowel of all in the present study. Examples (1),
(2), and(3) are strong evidences for the preference for substituting /æ/ with /ε/.
/e/ sound
(4)bait /bet/ → /bæt/ or /bεt/
(5)mate /met/ → /mæt/ or /mεt/
(6)hayed /hed/ → /hæd/ or /hεd/
7
Examples (4), (5), and (6) are the instances of subjects using other short vowels
to replace the long vowel.
On the scale of difficulty in terms of pronunciation, the five English front vowels
differed in degree. /æ/ was found to be the most difficult, /e/ lied in the second, /I/ was
in the middle, /i/ was the fourth and /ε/ was the least. From the results of the study, it
was found that 7.8% of the pronounced tense /i/ was substituted by /I/, 33% of /æ/ was
substituted by /ε/ and 55% of /e/ was substituted by /ε/ or /æ /. The English vowel, /i/,
which should be originally pronounced in front-high position of the oral cavity was
lowered to the front-mid position. Likewise, the English vowel, /æ/, that should be
originally pronounced in the front-low position of the oral cavity was pronounced in
the front-mid (close to central) position. Also, the English vowel, /e/ that should be
produced in the front-mid position of the oral cavity was pronounced in the front-mid
(close to central) position.
From the examples above, excluding the cases of mispronouncing, the problems
of pronunciation seemed to be partly related with the interference from L1. The
subjects tended to substitute the Mandarin vowel ㄝ for the English vowels /æ/ and
/e/. The habit of oral cavity movement in speaking L1 might account for such
substitution. If the subjects followed the habit of L1 in pronouncing vowels, they
might have problems producing the vowels in L2 that required different movement.
For instance, the vowel /æ/ required the subjects to lower their jaws to the point that
no Mandarin vowels required to reach. This increased the difficulty in pronunciation.
The result is consistent with the study by Tinloy M et al in 1988. People
constantly rely on the knowledge of the first language in learning the second language.
The English errors the Chinese learners made may be derived from the influence of
their native language since they may apply the “rules” of Mandarin Chinese to
English. They substitute English sounds with those similar to Chinese ones. For
example, the Chinese learners tend to substitute the sound / / with the sound /s/,
resulting in the word “something” pronounced as ”somesing” by Chinese learners
Table 8 The Scale of Difficulty of the Minimal Pairs
Minimal pair
Correctness percentage
Difficulty Scale
/i / vs /I/
70.5%
1
/e/ vs /ε/
49%
2
/ε/ vs /æ/
33.4%
3
The Easiest
The Most Difficult
Table 8 shows that the vowel pair“/i/ vs /I/”, compared to the other vowel pairs,
tends to be pronounced correctly by the subjects. The vowel pair “/i/ vs /I/” is
relatively easy for the subjects to distinguish and pronounce. The vowel pair “/ε/ vs
/æ/”, compared to the other vowel pairs, tends to be pronounced incorrectly by the
8
subjects. The vowel pair “/ε/ vs /æ/” is relatively difficult for the subjects to
pronounce.
Figure 1 The Correctness Rate of the Nine Minimal Pairs
the number of the subjects producing correct minimal pairs
15
10
5
0
beat/bit
eat/it
lead/lid
bait/bet
sail/sell
tale/tell
bet/bat
pet/pat
set/sat
number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Figure 1 shows that the minimal pair ”eat/it”, compared to the other minimal
pairs, tends to be pronounced correctly by the subjects. The minimal pair ”eat/it” is
relatively easy for the subjects to pronounce. The minimal pair ”pet/pat”, compared to
the other vowels, tends to be pronounced incorrectly by the subjects. The minimal
pair ”pet/pat” is relatively difficult for the subjects to pronounce.
Table 9 The Correctness Rate of Producing the Minimal Pairs
The front
vowel
/i/ vs /I/
/e/ vs /ε/
/ε/ vs /æ/
Minimal
pair
Both are
correct
Both are
incorrect
Only one
is correct
Correctness
beat/bit
10
0
7
58.8
eat/it
15
0
2
88.2
lead/lid
11
4
2
64.7
bait/bet
7
4
6
41.2
sail/sell
11
1
5
64.7
tale/tell
7
2
8
41.2
bet/bat
7
4
6
41.2
pet/pat
4
2
11
23.5
set/sat
6
1
10
35.3
Rate%
Average
Rate%
51%
Table 9 shows that the minimal pair ”eat/it” has the highest correctness rate,
followed by the Minimal pair” lead/lid” and ”sail/sell “. The minimal pair ”eat/it”
poses few difficulties for the sixth graders. The minimal pair” pet/pat” has the lowest
correctness rate among the nine minimal pairs. The average correctness rate of the
9
minimal pairs is 51%
There are three error types found from the minimal pairs the subjects produced in
the study:
Error type 1: The Lack of Tense, Lax, and Duration Difference
(1)eat /it / → /It/
(2)bait /bet/→ /bεt/
Among the nine minimal vowel pairs, the average correctness rate of the
minimal pairs is only 51%. Namely, the participants had difficulty distinguishably
producing these vowel pairs. The contrast vowels of /i, I/, /e, ε/, and /ε, æ/, all belong
to the phonemic pairs of tense and lax vowels with duration differences. It seems that
the participants were deficient in discriminating between the features of tense, lax and
duration in vowels. Tiee (1969) also founded that the syllabic phonemes /i/ and /I/ are
constantly confused by Mandarin speakers, who tend to substitute one phoneme for
the other.
Error type 2: Mispronouncing the target word
(3)set /sεt /→ /sIt/
(4)tale /tel/→ /t l/
(5)bit /bIt/→ /baIt/
To sum up, incorrect tongue position in pronunciation of English vowels
accounts for the errors in this study. The five English front vowels tend to be centered
due to smaller oral cavity movement, resulting in the fact that tongue height and
tenseness are easily ignored by Mandarin speakers.
Since Mandarin vowels lack the phonemic features of tense, lax and duration, the
participants have difficulty in distinguishing the tense and lax English vowels. This is
consistent with Rogers and Dalby (2005)’s statement that tongue height and tenseness
are main reasons that cause pronunciation problems. L1 transfer also plays a role in
Mandarin speakers’ mispronunciation, as many previous studies have mentioned
(Chen et al.2001;Wang and Heuven, 2004).
Pedagogical Implication
The results of the study demonstrate the problems that the Mandarin participants
meet when they produce English vowels. In addition to fixed cavity movement, their
productions of English vowels also ignore the phonemic features of tenseness and
duration. Lee (2007) explored pronunciation problems of the five front vowels by
elementary EFL learners in Taiwan, and found the major causes come from the
10
fundamental differences of phonological systems in the two languages, lack of
phonics instruction, and negative interference from L1, such as substitution.
The present study is restricted due to some limitations. First, the seventeen
subjects were all recruited from the same southern elementary school. They are not
representative of all the EFL elementary students. The results may not be generalized
to other elementary schools in Taiwan, either. Second, in this study, there are only two
raters, which might lead to grading bias. The reliability of the rating result is
debatable.
Despite the aforementioned limitations, the findings of the present study
hopefully provide some directions for EFL teachers in teaching pronunciation of
vowels. Tiee (1969) suggested a large number of exercises in minimal pairs, which
could train Chinese speakers to distinguish the vowels with phonemic features not
found in L1. Lee (2007) took phonological development and language universal into
consideration in designing teaching plans. Proper drills for students of different levels,
adequate preparations, detecting causes and solving problems are essential to
successful teaching in pronunciation.
Suggestion for Further Studies
In addition to the major pronunciation problems of the five front vowels,
exploring the difficulties of other prosodic features that students might encounter
could help improve pronunciation as well, such as vowel reduction, syllable duration,
pauses, linking, and speech rate. Besides, applying various instruments for rating and
scientific analysis in further studies is indispensable in obtaining more objective and
concrete evidences.
11
References
Beebe, I. M. (1984). Myths about interlanguage phonology. In S. Eliasson (Ed.),
Theoretical issues in contrastive phonology, 51-61. Heidelberg: Julius Groos
Verlag.
Rogers, C. L., & Dalby, J. (2005). Forced-Choice Analysis of Segmental Production
by Chinese-Accented English Speakers. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research, 48 , 306-322.
Chang, J. (1987). Chinese speakers. In M. Swan and B. Smith (Ed.), Learning
Englsih: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems, 224-237.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flege, J., Bohn, O. & Jang, S., (1997). Effects of experience on non-native
speakers’production and perception of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics, 25,
437-470.
Lee, W. Y. (2007). English pronunciation problems of Taiwan senior high school
students. Master’s thesis, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan.
Lin, H., et al. (1995). Teaching pronunciation in the learner-centered classroom.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED393292)
Skaer, P, M. (1984). Language sound systems and second language acquisition. Paper
presented at The Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages (Houston, TX, ).
Teng, H. Y. (2004). Chinese students’ performance in the pronunciation of English
tense and lax vowels. Master’s thesis, National Taiwan Normal University,
Taipei.
Tiee, H. (1969). Contrastive analysis of the monosyllabic structure of American
English and Mandarin Chinese. Language Learning, 19 (1&2), 1-15.
Tinloy, M. et al. (1988). Assessment of Chinese speaking limited English proficient
students with special needs. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EC
211-277)
Trammell, R. L. (1993). English ambisyllabic consonants and half-closed syllables in
language teaching. Language Learning, 43(2), 195-238.
Wang, H., & van Heuven, V. (2004). Cross-linguistic confusion of vowels produced
and perceived by Chinese, Linguistics in the Netherlands, 205-216
Wu, N. C. (1993). A constrastive study of Mandarin Chinese and American English
phonological systems. Journal of Taipei Business Junior college, 41, 361-465.
Chen, Y., Robb, M., Gilbert, H., & Lerman, J. (2001). Vowel production by Mandarin
speakers of English. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 15(6), 427 – 440.
12
Appendix A
Part 1. Word Set
/i /
請按照順序念出下面的字
/I/
/e/
/ε/
/æ/
1.beat
2.bit
3.bait
4.bet
5.bat
6.meat
7.mitt
8.mate
9.met
10.mat
11.heed
12.hid
13.hayed 14.head
Part 2. Minimal Pairs
/i/
vs /I/
15.had
請按照順序念出每一組字
/e/
vs /ε/
/ε/
vs /æ/
1. beat
bit
4.bait
bet
7.bet
bat
2.eat
it
5.sail
sell
8.pet
pat
3.lead
lid
6.tale
tell
9.set
sat
13
Appendix B
 Evaluation Form
Rater:
Please check each word of students’ pronunciation. If they pronounce correctly,
please make the frames of the “Right”. If they pronounce incorrectly, please mark the
frames of the “Wrong”. Please write down students’ mistakes next to the blank
provided.
1.beat
 right
 wrong
2.bit
 right
 wrong
3.bait
 right
 wrong
4.bet
 right
 wrong
5.bat
 right
 wrong
6.meat
 right
 wrong
7.mitt
 right
 wrong
8.mate
 right
 wrong
9.met
10.mat
 right
 right
 wrong
 wrong
11.heed
 right
 wrong
12.hid
13.hayed
 right
 right
 wrong
 wrong
14.head
 right
 wrong
15.had
 right
 wrong
 Evaluation Form 2
Rater:
Please check each word of students’ pronunciation. If they pronounce correctly,
please make the frames of the “Right”. If they pronounce incorrectly, please mark the
frames of the “Wrong”. Please write down students’ mistakes next to the blank
provided.
1.beat bit
 right  wrong
2.eat
it
 right  wrong
3.lead
4.bait
5.sail
6.tale
7.bet
8.pet
9.set
lid
bet
sell
tell
bat
bat
sat
 right
 right
 right
 right
 right
 right
 right
 wrong
 wrong
 wrong
 wrong
 wrong
 wrong
 wrong
14