Cross-Language Perception of Japanese Vowel Length Contrasts: Comparison of Listeners From Different First Language Backgrounds.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to compare the perception of Japanese vowel length contrasts by 4 groups of listeners who differed in their familiarity with length contrasts in their first language (L1; i.e., American English, Italian, Japanese, and Thai). Of the 3 nonnative groups, native...

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Publicado en:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 805 - 815
Autores principales: Kimiko Tsukada, Yukari Hirata, Roengpitya, Rungpat
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Jun2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jun2014
      vid: 57
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2014_JSLHR-S-12-0416
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        atl: Cross-Language Perception of Japanese Vowel Length Contrasts: Comparison of Listeners From Different First Language Backgrounds.
      aug:
        au:
          Kimiko Tsukada
          Yukari Hirata
          Roengpitya, Rungpat
        affil:
          Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
          Colgate University, Hamilton, NY.
          Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
      su:
        Language acquisition
        Japanese people
        Research funding
        Speech evaluation
        Speech perception
        Statistics
        Vowels
        Data analysis
        Descriptive statistics
      sug:
        subj:
          Language acquisition
          Japanese people
          Research funding
          Speech evaluation
          Speech perception
          Statistics
          Vowels
          Data analysis
          Descriptive statistics
      keyword:
        (un)familiar contrasts
        cross-language speech perception
        Italian
        Japanese
        Thai
        vowel length contrasts
        (un)familiar contrasts
        cross-language speech perception
        Italian
        Japanese
        Thai
        vowel length contrasts
      ab: Purpose: The purpose of this research was to compare the perception of Japanese vowel length contrasts by 4 groups of listeners who differed in their familiarity with length contrasts in their first language (L1; i.e., American English, Italian, Japanese, and Thai). Of the 3 nonnative groups, native Thai listeners were expected to outperform American English and Italian listeners, because vowel length is contrastive in their L1. Native Italian listeners were expected to demonstrate a higher level of accuracy for length contrasts than American English listeners, because the former are familiar with consonant (but not vowel) length contrasts (i.e., singleton vs. geminate) in their L1. Method: A 2-alternative forced-choice AXB discrimination test that included 125 trials was administered to all the participants, and the listeners’ discrimination accuracy (d’ ) was reported. Results: As expected, Japanese listeners were more accurate than all 3 nonnative groups in their discrimination of Japanese vowel length contrasts. The 3 nonnative groups did not differ from one another in their discrimination accuracy despite varying experience with length contrasts in their L1. Only Thai listeners were more accurate in their length discrimination when the target vowel was long than when it was short. Conclusion: Being familiar with vowel length contrasts in L1 may affect the listeners’ cross-language perception, but it does not guarantee that their L1 experience automatically results in efficient processing of length contrasts in unfamiliar languages. The extent of success may be related to how length contrasts are phonetically implemented in listeners’ L1.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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