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Article published In:
Current State of Second Language Studies in Japan
Edited by John Matthews and Shigenori Wakabayashi
[Journal of Second Language Studies 6:2] 2023
► pp. 210–237

Perception of Japanese accented English segments in words

ORCID logo | Waseda University, Japan
 | Waseda University, Japan
We studied the perception of segmental boundaries in native English and Japanese accents in terms of foreign accentedness, intelligibility and discrimination accuracy. Five American English vowels /ɪ, æ, ɑ, ə, ɝ/ and seven consonants /r, l, v, θ, f, t, k/ were extracted from English and Japanese words produced by an American English-Japanese bilingual speaker, and manipulated, with the acoustic properties shifting gradually from 100% Japanese to 100% American English using segmental foreign accent and gradation techniques. Perception tests were conducted online with native American English speakers, and groups of Japanese speakers with either low or high English proficiency. All three groups showed a negative correlation between the degree of foreign accent and intelligibility. Also, there was a greater reduction in intelligibility due to acoustic deviation from the native norm in consonants than in vowels. The results suggest that more standard-like accent does not necessarily improve intelligibility, thus highlighting the importance of FA research in terms of segmental accuracy.
Keywords: foreign accent, Japanese accented English, perception, segments, intelligibility, bilingual synthesis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Phonetics and phonology of Japanese accented English
    • 2.1Vowel features of English and Japanese accented English
    • 2.2Consonant features of English and Japanese accented English
    • 2.3Differences in prosodic features between English and Japanese
    • 2.4Selecting the test words
  • 3.Experimental methods
    • 3.1Selecting and recording test word tokens
    • 3.2Synthesizing bilingual tokens
    • 3.3Participants for the perception tests
    • 3.4Tasks for the perception tests
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Full overview
    • 4.2Consonants
    • 4.3Vowels
    • 4.4Summary of the results
    • 4.5Inter-task correlation
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.22017.kon
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