Benefits of the auditory priming effect for the L2 pronunciation learning of English schwa by Japanese learners of English: An investigation of the factors that influence this effect

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370681
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Kaori Sugiura 立命館大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (50515921)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 聴覚性プライミング効果 / 日本人英語学習者 / 発音 / 弱母音シュワー / リズムの反復 / 文字情報

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated the effects of the repetition of auditory words/sentences on the L2 pronunciation improvement of the schwa sound by Japanese learners of English. Experiment 1 examined the effects of presenting the orthography of a target word during repetition, and Experiment 2 investigated the effects of repeating musical beats before a target sentence was repeated. Experiment 1 showed that intensive auditory repetition without orthographic information followed by enough practice with both auditorily and orthographically presented targets is effective. Experiment 2 found that repeating a rhythm that matches the rhythm of the target sentence facilitates learning. These experiments revealed that the simple repetition of materials improves learners’ pronunciation of the schwa sound in the duration, while the effect was not clearly revealed in the quality. This suggests that auditory priming may be more effective for the pronunciation improvement of prosodic features.

Free Research Field

第二言語習得（音声）