Impact of similarity measurement on perception of native and non-native speech perception

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16832
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Sophia University
• Principal Investigator: Tomaru Kanako 上智大学, 理工学部, 研究員 (40735990)
• Research Collaborator: ARAI takayuki ; NAKAMURA taichi
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: カテゴリー知覚 / 知覚同化 / 外国語知覚 / 母語知覚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Traditionally, human speech perception has been investigated from two aspects: (1) perception of native sounds in terms of categorical perception and (2) perception of non-native sounds in terms of perceptual assimilation. However, these two approaches are alike because they both assume that “perception of speech sounds involves measurement of similarity between a heard sound and native sounds.” The research focused on the similarity between the two models and investigated whether native and non-native speech perception can be explained by a single index. Through acoustical analysis of English and Japanese vowels and analysis of Japanese listeners’ perception of an English unstressed vowel, it is suggested that although non-native speech perception may be affected by more factors than native-speech perception, it is reasonable to discuss the two types of perception in one model. Follow-up study is needed to confirm the suggestion.

Free Research Field

音声学、実験音声学、心理言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、母語と外国語の知覚を同一の現象としてとらえる可能性について検討している。この試みは、学術的にも革新的であり、さらに社会的貢献も期待できる。母語と外国語の聞き分けや、外国語音声の聞き取りについては、近年の早期英語教育の導入により、初等教育の教育従事者にとっても、差し迫った課題である。初等教育での外国語教育導入で懸念されるのが、母国語の軽視である。外国語の聞き取りを学ぶことが、母国語の聞き取りと同一の過程であることが分かれば、母国語を軽視することなく、外国語聞き取り練習や、授業での教示を行うことができる可能性がある。今後の教材開発や教育の質向上に貢献できる点で、社会的意義が大きい。