Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Pronunciation: Online-First Articles

Effects of observing pitch gestures on the perception of English intonation by Japanese learners of English

ORCID logo | Juntendo University
 | Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
 | Bunkyo University
The effects of observing pitch gestures on non-native English intonation perception among 80 Japanese learners of English were examined to uncover whether pitch gestures boost the perception of intonation patterns in the contexts of congruent, incongruent, and no gestures (CGs, IGs, and NGs, respectively); gestural effects differ from various intonation patterns; and gestural effects are based on the complexity of stimuli. The results showed that identification was most accurate for CGs, followed by NGs and IGs for both word and sentence stimuli. Although gestural effects differed depending on intonation patterns and the target stimuli, observing CGs enhances the perception of intonation patterns, including rising patterns, which are particularly challenging for Japanese learners. Consequently, these findings provide pedagogical implications for incorporating pitch gestures into both the learning and teaching of second-language intonation.
Keywords: pitch gesture, perception, English intonation pattern, multimodal learning, L2 prosody, Japanese learners of English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials
    • 3.3Procedure
    • 3.4Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Descriptive statistics
  • 4.2Three-way ANOVA
  • 4.3Two-way ANOVA with the sentence stimuli
  • 4.4Two-way ANOVA with the word stimuli
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgment
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 24 January 2025
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.24015.hor
References (32)
References
Akatsuka, M. (2013). Eigo hatsuon kyoiku ni okeru prosody hyokiho no kouka kenkyu: nihonjineigogaushusya wo taisyo toshita jikken jugyo kara [The effect of prosody notation systems in training of English pronunciation: Based on classroom research with Japanese English learners]. [Doctoral dissertation, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies]. Takenoko: NUFS-NUAS Repository of Academic Resources. [URL]
Akatsuka, M., Hori, T., & Toyama, M. (2018). Nihonjin eigogakushusha ni okeru eigo intonation no hatsuonsido no koka [Effects of instructing English intonation pronunciation to Japanese learners]. Language Education & Technology, 55 1, 151–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baills, F., Suárez-González, N., González-Fuente, S., & Prieto, P. (2019). Observing and producing pitch gestures facilitates the learning of Mandarin Chinese tones and words. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41 1, 33–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beckman, M. (1986). Stress and non-stress accent. De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beckman, M., & Pierrehumbert, J. (1986). Intonational structure in Japanese and English. In C. Ewen & J. Anderson (Eds.), Phonology yearbook 3 1 (pp. 255–309). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2018). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (version 6.0.41) [Computer program]. [URL]
Dolscheid, S., Willems, R. M., Hagoort, P., & Casasanto, D. (2014). The relation of space and musical pitch in the brain. In P. Bello, M. Guarini, M. McShane, & B. Scassellati (Eds.), Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 421–426). Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
Guion, S. G., Harada, T., & Clark, J. J. (2004). Early and late Spanish-English bilinguals’ acquisition of English word stress patterns. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7 (3), 207–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hannah, B., Wang, Y., Jongman, A., Sereno, J. A., Cao, J., & Nie, Y. (2017). Cross-modal association between auditory and visuospatial information in Mandarin tone perception in noise by native and non-native perceivers. Frontiers in Psychology, 8 1. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hayashi, R. (2020). Chobunsetsutekiyoso [Suprasegmentals]. In S. Imaizumi & Y. Ozawa (Eds.), Gengo chokakushinotameno kiso chishiki [Introductory phonetics and linguistics for speech-language-hearing therapists] (pp. 41–46). Igakushoin. (Original work published in 2009).Google Scholar
Hirata, Y., Kelly, S. D., Huang, J., & Manansala, M. (2014). Effects of hand gestures on auditory learning of second-learning vowel length contrasts. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57 (6), 2090–2101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hori, T., Toyama, M., & Akatsuka, M. (2020, May 25–28). Perception of English Intonation by Japanese Learners of English. [Paper presentation]. The 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020, Tokyo, Japan. DOI logo
(2021). Perception of English intonation patterns by Japanese learners of English. Language Education & Technology, 58 1, 1–16. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iizuka, T., Nakatsukasa, K., & Braver, A. (2020). The efficacy of gesture on second language pronunciation: An exploratory study of handclapping as a classroom instructional tool. Language Learning, 70 (4), 1054–1090. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, S. D., Özyürek, A., & Maris, E. (2010). Two sides of the same coin: Speech and gesture mutually interact to enhance comprehension. Psychological Science, 21 (2), 260–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelly, S. D., Bailey, A., & Hirata, Y. (2017). Metaphoric gestures facilitate perception of intonation more than length in auditory judgments of non-native phonemic contrasts. Collabra Psychology, 3 (1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kikuchi, H., & Miyajima, T. (2012, March 5–6). Nihongo hanashikotoba corpus niokeru kumatsu oncho variation [Variation of tones at the accentual phrase edge in the corpus of spontaneous Japanese] [Poster presentation]. JCL Workshop, Tokyo, Japan. [URL]
Kori, S. (2018). Nihongo intonation nitsuiteno ikutsukano choshu jikken [A perceptual study on Japanese intonation]. Studies in Language and Culture, 43 1, 249–272.Google Scholar
Kubozono, H. (1998). Onseigaku oninron [Phonetics and phonology] (Vol. 11). Kuroshio Shuppan.Google Scholar
Li, P., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2020). Observing and producing durational hand gestures facilitates the pronunciation of novel vowel length contrasts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 42 (5), 1015–1039. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, P., Baills, F., Alazard-Guiu, C., Baqué, L., & Prieto, P. (2024). A pedagogical note on teaching L2 prosody and speech sounds using hand gestures. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 9 (1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McNeil, D. (1992). Hand and mind. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Morett, L. M., & Chang, L.-Y. (2015). Emphasising sound and meaning: Pitch gestures enhance Mandarin lexical tone acquisition. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 30 (3), 347–353. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roach, P. (2000). English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sham, L., & Seitz, A. R. (2008). Benefits of multisensory learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12 1, 411–417. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
So, C. K., & Best, C. T. (2010). Cross-language perception of non-native tonal contrasts: Effects of native phonological and phonetic influences. Language and Speech, 53 (2), 273–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, X., Li, L., & McMurray, B. (2022). Cross-modal perceptual learning in learning a tonal language. In J. Culbertson, A. Perfors, H. Rabagliati, & V. Ramenzoni (Eds.), CogSci2022: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society; Vol. 44 (pp. 934–939). Cognitive Science Society. [URL]
Wells, J. (2006). English intonation: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Xi, X., Li, P., Bails, F., & Prieto, P. (2020). Hand gestures facilitate the acquisition of novel phonemic contrasts when they appropriately mimic target phonetic features. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63 (11), 3571–3585. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yuan, C., González-Fuente, S., Baills, F., & Prieto, P. (2019). Observing pitch gestures favors the learning of Spanish intonation by Mandarin speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41 (1), 5–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhen, A., Van Hedger, S., Heald, S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Tian, X. (2019). Manual directional gestures facilitate cross-modal perceptual learning. Cognition, 187 1, 178–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar