Modelling Japanese speakers' perceptual learning of English /iː/ and /ɪ/ within the L2LP framework

Kakeru Yazawa, Mariko Kondo, Paola Escudero

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paperpeer-review

Abstract

![CDATA[This study concerns Japanese speakers’ perception of American English (AE) high front vowels: /iː/-/ɪ/. Although vowel spectra are the primary perceptual cue for this contrast for native speakers, Japanese learners of English perceive /iː/ as ‘long’ and /ɪ/ as ‘short,’ being influenced by contrastive vowel length in Japanese. However, little attention has been paid to whether they will learn to use spectral information as they become more proficient in the L2. We ran computer simulations based on the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model to investigate whether adult Japanese learners of English are capable of adjusting their perceptual cue weighting for AE /iː/-/ɪ/ contrast. The result of the simulations, along with our pilot experiment on real learners, suggests that such learning is possible even in adulthood provided the learner has access to a large amount of native input. Implications for late language immersion will be discussed.]]
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPTLC2017: Proceedings of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference, UCL, London, 9-11 August 2017
PublisherPhonetics Teaching and Learning Conference
Pages115-119
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)9780992639426
Publication statusPublished - 2017
EventPhonetics Teaching and Learning Conference -
Duration: 9 Aug 2017 → …

Conference

ConferencePhonetics Teaching and Learning Conference
Period9/08/17 → …

Keywords

  • English language
  • Japanese speakers
  • language acquisition
  • speech perception

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