2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Auditory priming effect on improvement in L2 pronunciation: Focusing on word stress and schwa

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24720262
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Foreign language education
Research Institution	Ritsumeikan University (2013) Shizuoka University of Art and Culture (2012)
Principal Investigator	SUGIURA KAORI 立命館大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (50515921)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	聴覚性プライミング / 発音 / 語強勢 / 弱母音 / 日本人英語学習者
Research Abstract	This study investigated whether repetition practice involving the auditory priming effect can contribute to improving one aspect of the pronunciation of English, namely, word stress, specifically the schwa's quality and the durational ratio of schwa to the stressed vowel in words pronounced by Japanese learners of English. The results showed that 5 repetitions of auditory words in a short period of time is effective for both high- and low-familiarity words from high frequency English words from the BNC, as well as for words with schwa in the initial and final syllables. Attention to syllables while repeating a word (repeating syllable-segmented words) facilitates the target pronunciation. In addition, the orthographic information is helpful for learning the pronunciation only if it is provided after learners have received intensive phonetic input. Lastly, the learning effect lasted 10 minutes but did not last a week under the condition of only repetition of auditory words.

(4 results)