1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Production and Perception of Rhythm in Second Language Acquisition
| Project/Area Number |
10610521
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
言語学・音声学
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| Research Institution | Juntendo University |
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Principal Investigator |
SUDO Michiko Juntendo Univ., Dept.of Sports and Health Science, Associate Professor, スポーツ健康科学部, 助教授 (60226587)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MATSUNO Kazuhiko Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Professor, 大学院・総合文化研究科, 教授 (90029679)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 1999
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| Keywords | Second language acquisition / Rhythm / Production / Perception / Weak forms / Acoustic features / Durational control / Discourse |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the perception and production of English weak forms and to examine the influence of these factors on the acquisition of rhythm for Japanese learners of English. First, partial dictation tests were designed to test the listening abilities for weak forms of Japanese learners. The average percentage of correct perceptions for pronouns and articles ranged from 100% to 15%, depending on the sentences tested. We observed that, among Japanese, phonetic environments exerted a significant influence on the degree of difficulty of perception. A further study was made to test for durational features affecting the perception of weak forms. We compared the influence of acoustic features on the perception of English weak forms for Japanese learners of English with that of native speakers of English. We found that Japanese learners and native speakers of English behaved very differently with respect to the perception of durational features in their perception.
Also, we examined the production of weak forms by native speakers of English and Japanese learners. We observed the use of word accent in the realization of sentences for Japanese learners, as compared to the use of sentence accent for native speakers. Especially, we found a conspicuous difference in the production of weak forms between the two groups of subjects. Thus, the study showed that the production of weak forms is a significant factor in the acquisition of rhythm in English. Furthermore, the influence of focus in discourse on the temporal control was observed for native speakers, but not for Japanese learners.
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