| Research Abstract |
I set forth the hypothesis that Chinese learners' poor proficiency for listening to Japanese speech is due to negative transfer from their language and their socio-cultural norm. For this research, I examined Chinese who speak mandarin which does not have a voicing contrast in plosive consonants and Chinese of Shanghai dialect with that contrast about the relationship between their acquisition of the voiced-voiceless distinction of Japanese plosive consonants and their perception of spoken Japanese. I pointed out the following results.
1. It is more difficult for Mandarin speakers than Shanghai speakers to acquire the perception of the distinctive features of voiced-voiceless plosive consonants. Particularly, syllables with /t/, /d/, /k/ are hard to be acquired.
2. Mandarin speakers are also poor at listening to Japanese speech, compared with Shanghai speakers.
3. The syllables with /t/, /d/, /k/ which are difficult for Mandarin speakers are one third of all the syllables in the discourse which I used for the listening proficiency test.
4. Negative transfer from Mandarin phonology seems to be one of the causes of Chinese learners' poor listening proficiency since most Chinese speak this mandarin standard Chinese.
5. Immersed in Japanese speech in their daily life, learners who feel good at listening make more progress both in the perception of plosive consonants and speech than the other learners who do not.
6. Poor exposure to Japanese speech tends to make learners feel poor at listening to Japanese speech among them.
7. As a cause of the difference among circumstances shown in 5,6, or learners in 5, communication behaviors, educational circumstances, socio-cultural norms surrounding learners should be considered, not negative transfer from L.1.
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