Research on noise-intolerant "Yasashii Nigongo (plain Japanese)" based on phonetics and psycholinguistics

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00591
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
• Research Institution: Shokei University
• Principal Investigator: Yamakawa Kimiko 尚絅大学, 現代文化学部, 准教授 (80455196)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 天野 成昭 愛知淑徳大学, 人間情報学部, 教授 (90396119)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: やさしい日本語 / 音声学 / 心理言語学 / 聞き取りやすさ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Efforts are being made to promote the utilization of "Yasashii Nihongo" (plain Japanese), which is easily understandable by foreigners, as one of the strategies to smoothly communicate and provide essential information such as emergency evacuation instructions and daily life guidance to the increasing number of foreign tourists and residents in Japan. However, the existing "Yasashii Nihongo" has certain issues, including insufficient consideration of the characteristics of speech perception and a lack of scientific evidence.
Therefore, in this study, we aimed to achieve "Yasashii Nihongo" which is easy to listen to and understand. We converted the "difficult-to-understand Japanese" used in public address systems, such as disaster warning broadcasts, into Easy Japanese based on scientific knowledge from the fields of phonetics and psycholinguistics. Furthermore, we conducted perception experiments to verify its ease of comprehension for both Japanese and non-Japanese speakers.

Free Research Field

音声科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果で得られた聞き取りやすい「やさしい日本語」を屋外・屋内放送や公共放送等で用いれば，緊急時の避難情報等を外国人に対して円滑に伝達可能となり，彼らの命と安全の確保に繋がる。また通常時においても外国人に対する地方自治体の窓口対応等が向上するとともに，日常生活に必要な情報や観光案内情報をより良く提供できる。さらに聴力が衰えた高齢者に対しても聞き取りやすい「やさしい日本語」による情報伝達の向上が期待できる。つまり聞き取りやすい「やさしい日本語」は「情報提供のユニバーサルデザイン」として社会的弱者への様々な波及効果が期待でき，その社会的意義は極めて大きい。