The efficacy of physical training techniques used in sports to develop muscle memory for foreign language pronunciation

2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00826
• Research Institution: Akita University
• Principal Investigator: PATERSON Adrian 秋田大学, 教育文化学部, 准教授 (50537040)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 松本 奈緒 秋田大学, 教育文化学部, 准教授 (30364699)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: vowels / articulation / recordings / spectrograms

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

We successfully completed acquisition of research equipment and reference materials in preparation for the experimental phase. Unfortunately, the start of the experimental phase was severely delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown and then the subsequent restrictions on close contact. This was particularly the difficult in the case of research into pronunciation as it required the removal of masks by research subjects' for the recording of articulation, and by the primary researcher for demonstration purposes. Therefore, we decided to extend the research period into 2023. With the lifting of mask restrictions, we began recruiting subjects for the study, and expect to complete the experimental and analysis phases by the middle of 2023, and plan to have a paper ready by the end of 2023.

Current Status of Research Progress

4: Progress in research has been delayed.

Reason

As noted above, the experimental phase was delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent restrictions on close contact and the use of masks.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

As noted above, the research period was extended to 2023. Now that mask restrictions have been largely lifted, we began recruiting subjects for the study, and expect to complete the experimental and analysis phases by the middle of 2023, and plan to have a paper ready by the end of 2023.

Causes of Carryover

Due to the above mentioned COVID-19 delays, the travel portion of the allotted funding has not been used yet.