Short- and long-term effects of the amount of input in early foreign language learning on phonemic discrimination

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520712
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: HARADA Tetsuo 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (60208676)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 早期外国語教育 / 学習開始年齢 / 学習期間 / インプット / 第二言語習得 / 音声習得 / 音素識別 / ノイズ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated effects of a younger starting age in a situation of minimal classroom exposure on the perception of English consonants produced by different talkers with two noise levels. The listeners were two groups of Japanese university students: early learners (n = 21) who started studying English in kindergarten or elementary school, and late learners (n = 24) who began to study in junior high school. The selected target phonemes were word-medial approximants (/l, r/). Results showed that the late learners discriminated /l/ and /r/ better than the early learners regardless of the noise conditions and talker differences (p < .05). A multiple regression analysis revealed that the late learners’ success could be accounted for by the following predictors: 1) classroom interaction with teacher and peers, 2) use of spoken English outside of classroom, and 3) overall English language proficiency. The age factor may not matter in the minimal input situation.

Free Research Field

第二言語習得