Practice and Expansion of Japanese Prosody Education Overseas

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25284094
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
• Principal Investigator: ISOMURA KAZUHIRO 政策研究大学院大学, 政策研究科, 非常勤講師 (00401729)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 松田 真希子 金沢大学, 学内共同利用施設等, 准教授 (10361932) ; 林 良子 神戸大学, 国際文化学部, 教授 (20347785) ; 金村 久美 名古屋経済大学, 経営学部, 准教授 (20424955)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YOSHIDA Natsuya 国立国語研究所, 理論構造研究系, 非常勤研究員 (60316320) ; KANEDA Junpei 国立民族学博物館, 研究員 (10511975)
• Research Collaborator: ABE Shin ; SHIBATA Tomoko ; NAKAGAWA Chieko ; NAJOAN Franky Raymond ; FUKUSHIMA Yupaka ; PHAM Thuo Huong ; WANG Ruilai ; TAGO Kasumi ; HATANO Hiroaki ; ARONGNA ; WU Linan
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 音声教育 / 韻律 / 日本語教育 / 発音 / 学習ストラテジー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A survey via questionnaire for Japanese teachers shows that the method of teaching Japanese prosody in classrooms overseas is mainly ad hoc; systematic instruction is limited, especially in regards to the Japanese word accent.
The experimental study of Japanese learners' pronunciation from different countries demonstrated that without any information for word accent their prosody was unnatural, but they could produce correct Japanese prosody when they repeat native speaker's pronunciation while seeing accent marks. Moreover, they could produce, by themselves, more appropriate prosody even if they only see the accent marks. This means that most Japanese learners have the potential to differentiate Japanese accent patterns and produce them correctly. Even if students only have visual information for Japanese prosody, such as accent marks, they can improve their pronunciation.

Free Research Field

日本語音声教育