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Why English sounds fast to the ears of Japanese? --- A study on English rate perceived by Japanese speakers

Research Project

Project/Area Number 24520645
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Research Field Foreign language education
Research InstitutionMejiro University

Principal Investigator

HIROZANE Yoshito  目白大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (30269469)

Project Period (FY) 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
Budget Amount *help
¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Keywords速度知覚 / 単語親密度 / 語彙アクセス / 発話速度
Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aims to search for reasons why English sounds fast to Japanese speakers even though there is no significant difference in rate between English and Japanese. I focused on the relationship between perceived rate and 1) language specific phonetic characteristics of English, which is typically different from those of Japanese, namely, pause distribution, stress-timed rhythm, consonant clusters, and reduction, and 2) word familiarity, or lexical access speed.
Experiments were conducted to examine if those factors affect English rate perceived by Japanese speakers. The results suggested that slower lexical access deriving from their underdeveloped vocabulary is the major reason why Japanese speakers perceive English as fast rather than language specific phonetic characteristics of English.

Report

(4 results)
  • 2014 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2013 Research-status Report
  • 2012 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (5 results)

All 2015 2013 2012

All Journal Article (2 results) (of which Peer Reviewed: 1 results) Presentation (3 results)

  • [Journal Article] Effects of reduction on English rate perceived by Japanese L2 learners of English2013

    • Author(s)
      Yoshito Hirozane
    • Journal Title

      The Tsuda Review

      Volume: 58 Pages: 75-94

    • NAID

      120006470486

    • Related Report
      2013 Research-status Report
  • [Journal Article] Effects of rhythm on English rate perception by Japanese and English speakers2013

    • Author(s)
      Yoshito Hirozane and Robert Mannell
    • Journal Title

      The Phonetician

      Volume: 107-108 Pages: 21-34

    • Related Report
      2013 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed
  • [Presentation] Word familiarity as a factor determining perceived rate of English2015

    • Author(s)
      Yoshito Hirozane
    • Organizer
      14th Annual Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) Roundtable
    • Place of Presentation
      University of Arizona (ツーソン、アメリカ)
    • Year and Date
      2015-03-06
    • Related Report
      2014 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] English rate perceived by Japanese and monolingual/bilingual English speakers2015

    • Author(s)
      Yoshito Hirozane and Robert Mannell
    • Organizer
      16th Annual Texas Foreign Languages Education Conference
    • Place of Presentation
      University of Texas at San Antonio (サンアントニオ、アメリカ)
    • Year and Date
      2015-02-21
    • Related Report
      2014 Annual Research Report
  • [Presentation] 単語親密度が日本人の知覚する英語の速度に与える影響について2012

    • Author(s)
      広実義人
    • Organizer
      2012(平成24年度) 第26回 日本音声学会全国大会
    • Place of Presentation
      大東文化大学 板橋キャンパス
    • Related Report
      2012 Research-status Report

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Published: 2013-05-31   Modified: 2019-07-29  

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