Should activities to notice differences between Japanese and foreign languages be conducted in units of phonemes?

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K00680
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Kagawa University
• Principal Investigator: NAGAI Katsumi 香川大学, 大学教育基盤センター, 教授 (20332059)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 音素単位 / イギリス英語 / 発音練習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

All learners should start with spoken language because speech sound is the main frame of all languages. Therefore, it was reasonable that foreign language activities in Japanese elementary schools were introduced with the primary goal of familiarizing children with speech sounds. However, in foreign language classrooms, there are almost no data showing which is preferable, (a)learning new phonemes, in the smallest units for both articulation and perception, or (b) learning new syllables, in larger combinations of consonants and vowels.
In the present study, I compared the performance of two learning experiments, one in which only plosive consonants were minimally paired and the other in which consonant-vowel syllable units were minimally paired. Results showed practicing in phonemic units yielded better results, suggesting no need to overemphasize phoneme recognition.

Free Research Field

英語音声学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

英語の文字と発音との関係は複雑で，体系的な指導は簡単ではない。一方日本語の文字と発音は音節単位であるカナ文字の大きな影響を受ける。これらの理由から，日本語を母語とする英語学習者の記憶再生成績を，音素単位と音節単位の両方で行い，どちらが効率的であるのかを明らかにすることは英語教育法の基礎データとして重要である。実験では新規な音素と新規な音節を学習することが必要だが，小学校から英語を学ぶ日本語話者に，日英両言語に存在しない音素を提示するのはこれまで困難であった。本研究はこれを破裂子音の新カテゴリで克服し，一定の成果を上げた点で学術的社会的に有意義なものであると考えられる。