| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,070,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,170,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
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| 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.
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