Mandarin Chinese speakers' acquisition of the Japanese vowel length contrast.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24720238
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: Kokushikan University
• Principal Investigator: KURIHARA Michiyo 国士舘大学, 21世紀アジア学部, 准教授 (40431481)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 長母音 / 知覚 / 生成 / 中国語母語話者 / 習得過程 / 日本語教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated the perceptual characteristics of the Japanese vowel length contrast among Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese, arising from the effects of syllable position and pitch type perspective. Perceptual empirical data showed that difficulties in learners' vowel length judgment differ by syllable positions and pitch types. This indicates that learners need to acquire the vowel length contrast in the word-initial position before identifying the short or long vowel in other positions, and that they must be able to perceive long vowels with low to high pitch movement, to distinguish the vowel length with low pitch continued. Learners' production data were also collected, which reveal that production accuracy is inferior, as the vowel length perceptual judgment tends to be confused easily. The data also indicate that generated vowel length can be appropriate, as the vowel length identification is relatively correct.

Free Research Field

日本語教育学