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2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Longitudinal analysis on phonological property of English speech production and English speech perception of Japanese elementary school children

Research Project

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Project/Area Number 17K02954
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Research Field Foreign language education
Research InstitutionDoshisha University

Principal Investigator

Kato Tsuneo  同志社大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (60607258)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 山本 誠一  同志社大学, 理工学部, 教授 (20374100)
Project Period (FY) 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Keywords小学生 / 英語音声 / 追跡的分析 / フォルマント / 韻律評価
Outline of Final Research Achievements

We recorded English speech produced by 90 native Japanese elementary school children every 6 months from the 4th grade to the 6th grade. Focusing on English monophthongal vowels, we measured spectral quality and segmental duration of the vowel segments. The spectral variance of each monophthong was decreasing over time. We analyzed on three vowel groups, /ah/-/ae/-/aa/, /ih/-/iy/ and /uh/-/uw/, which are difficult for native speakers of Japanese to differentiate. We found that the children tried to differentiate /ah/-/ae/-/aa/ in spectral quality. Meanwhile, the children had difficulty differentiating /ih/-/iy/ and /uh/-/uw/ by spectral quality and differentiated them as long and short vowels, instead.

Free Research Field

音声信号処理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

2020年度より国内の小学校で外国語が教科化される.3-4年生で「外国語活動」が行われ,5-6年生では教科として「外国語(英語)」が教えられる.第2言語音の獲得は早いほどよいとされるが,児童を対象とする従来の研究は第2言語環境に移住した際の変化を測るものが多く,母語環境における外国語教育による発音の変化の継続的な記録は報告されていない.母語環境の場合,第2言語環境の場合に比べて変化が遅く,弱いと考えられる.また,個人差も大きいと考えられ,多数の児童を対象に,より長期に渡って継続的に記録し,定量的に分析することが,エビデンスに基づく議論のための基盤として必要と考えられる.

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Published: 2021-02-19  

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