The Influence of the L1s' difference to learners' perception of Japanese special morae

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25770197
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2014-2015); 山口福祉文化大学 (2013)
• Principal Investigator: ISHIZAWA Toru 東京外国語大学, 大学院国際日本学研究院, 講師 (00636095)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 音声知覚 / 誤答分析 / 母語の違い / 特殊モーラ / アクセント

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I examined how learners of Japanese perceive Japanese special morae by analyzing their error patterns of sound perceptions in order to find out common features of second language phonological acquisition.
The research revealed that learners, regardless of their L1's, exhibit the same characteristics in perception: (1) It is more difficult to perceive a geminate consonant (soku-on) than a longer mora (choo-on), and (2) they can perceive a geminate consonant well when a heavy syllable with a geminate consonant and an accent are set on the same position. Also, (3) many learners can understand there is a heavy syllable with a geminate consonant in stimuli, but they mistook the syllable's position.

Free Research Field

日本語教育