Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese A
Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation Yuna Hiranuma University of Montana/Kobe City University of Foreign Studies UM Conference on Undergraduate Research Friday, April 27, 2018. UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 1
“Kanji is really difficult, but the pronunciation of Japanese is really easy to acquire!” Kanji: Chinese character having meaning for each UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 2
Japanese Pronunciation for American learners • Comparing vowels. . English Japanese 13 5 i ɪ e æ ə i e a o ɯ ɜ u ʊ o ʌ ɔ ɑ • Comparing consonants. . English Japanese 25 19 p b m ʍ w f v θ ð t d n s z l ɹ ʃ ʒ t ʃ d ʒ j k ɡ ŋ p b m ʔ w n t d s z ɾ ɕ c ʝ j k ɡ ŋ h h • Syllable Structure is much simpler in Japanese than in English UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 3
Japanese Pronunciation for American learners • How about intonation? adding some nuance Intonation ex) You saw him↓VS You saw him↑ word meaning change ex) ame English Japanese or Isn’t it challenging for the learners to acquire intonation in Japanese? UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 4
This study is about Intonation in Japanese • This study investigates Japanese intonation • But, not about the intonation that change meanings like ame • Investigation about whether American learners acquire intonation like Japanese people do UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 5
Background Second Language Acquisition Transfer Suprasegmental Language Transfer UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 6
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) • What is second language acquisition (SLA)? • SLA: how an adult acquire a language other than first language • first language (L 1)= native language • second language (L 2) = any other language than L 1 UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 7
Transfer • What is language transfer? • The prior knowledge of all the aspect of L 1 structure influencing the aspects of L 2(Saville-Troike, 2006) • For example. . . that native English speakers [ðat] German learners of English [dat] Transfer: German → English UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 8
Suprasegmental Language Transfer • How about suprasegmental language transfer? • Suprasegmentals = tone, intonation, stress • Studies about sound are less studied than the other domains in second language acquisition (SLA) • Moreover, suprasegmentals among sound studies are rarely examined! • Japanese pitch-accent contrasts and phrasal intonation are known to be challenging in both perception and production (Ayusawa, 2003) UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 9
Question • Suprasegmental transfer from American English to Japanese? English word prominence pitch & loudness Japanese pitch language type stress-accent language pitch-accent language Beckman (1984) • For example. . . my family name ‘Hiranuma’ Japasese [hiɾanɯma] pitch vs. English [hɪɹənu mə] pitch & loudness UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 10
Hypothesis • A Japanese word pronounced by American learners of Japanese might have phonetic correlation of word prominence, pitch and loudness • Example: terebi ‘TV’ American learners: terebi pitch& loudness Japanese native speakers: terebi pitch UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 11
Methods Participants Tasks Data processing UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 12
Participants • Research participants: American learners of Japanese in JPN 201/Fall 2017 Gender Age Home City Period of Japanese Learning (Year) A female 33 Dallas (TX) 1½ B female 18 Denver (CO) 4 C female 19 Victor (MT) 1½ D female 24 Kodiak (AK) 7 E female 24 Missoula (MT) 1½ F male 20 Kalispell (MT) 1½ UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 13
Participants • Research participants: Japanese native speakers Gender Age Home City Period of staying at UM (month) a female 21 Tokyo 4 b male 21 Tokyo 9 c female 23 Tokyo 9 UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 14
Tasks Japanese Romanization English equivalent 1 テレビ terebi ‘television’ 2 モンタナ montana ‘Montana’ 3 ピカチュウ pikachuu ‘Pikachu’ 4 いす isu ‘chair’ 5 しんかんせん shinkansen ‘bullet train’ 6 プレゼント purezento ‘present’ 7 すし sushi ‘sushi’ 8 まんが manga ‘comic book’ 9 クレジットカード kurejittokaado ‘credit card’ 10 カラオケ karaoke ‘karaoke’ UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 15
Tasks Japanese Romanization English equivalent 1 テレビ terebi ‘television’ 2 モンタナ montana ‘Montana’ 3 ピカチュウ pikachuu ‘Pikachu’ 4 いす isu ‘chair’ 5 しんかんせん shinkansen ‘bullet train’ 6 プレゼント purezento ‘present’ 7 すし sushi ‘sushi’ 8 まんが manga ‘comic book’ 9 クレジットカード kurejittokaado ‘credit card’ 10 カラオケ karaoke ‘karaoke’ UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 16
Tasks ①terebi (with picture) ②terebi (with no picture) terebi ‘TV(television)’ UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 17
Data Processing • Pitch (F 0) and loudness (d. B) of each vowel in a word are measured by plotting the middle part in stable area F 0 Measurement point Stable area Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2018) UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 18
Data Processing Participant A: American learners isu ‘chair’ i su pitch (F 0) 236 182 loudness (d. B) 66 55 su shi pitch (F 0) 115 383 loudness (d. B) 56 53 →correlation Participant D: American learners sushi UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma →non-correlation 19
Results Findings UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 20
Result Pitch-intensity correlation of 10 Japanese words (2) Japanese native speakers (1) American learners Subject (n=6) Correlation Subject (n=3) Correlation A 7 b 5 B 5 c 4 C 8 d 4 D 7 MEAN 5 E 5 STDV 1. 41 F 6 MEAN 6. 33 STDV 1. 21 P<0. 01 UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 21
Result Pitch-intensity correlation of 10 Japanese words (2) Japanese native speakers (1) American learners Subject (n=6) Correlation Subject (n=3) Correlation A 7 b 5 B 5 c 4 C 8 d 4 D 7 MEAN 5 E 5 STDV 1. 41 F 6 MEAN 6. 33 STDV 1. 21 P<0. 01 UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 22
Result • Conducted T-test: P<0. 01 • Both groups are significantly different • The data can be considered as indicating the correlation difference between two groups UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 23
Conclusion&Implications Findings & Conclusion Implications Applications UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 24
Findings & Conclusion • Pitch-loudness correlation in Japanese American learners > Japanese native speakers • English : stress-accent language → pitch & loudness • Japanese : pitch-accent language → pitch Suprasegmental language transfer tend to occur in Japanese pronunciation by American learners from English UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 25
Implication: What the learners are advised to do • Consciousness of difference → L 2 development (Saito & Wu, 2014) • Learners might not be aware of Japanese having intonation that is different from English To master Japanese pronunciation, the learners are advised • To understand the suprasegmental difference between English and Japanse • To pay attention not only to sounds itself but also intonation in Japanese It can be applied to the learning methods of other pitch-accent languages UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 26
References • Muriel Saville-Troike. 2006. Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Ellis, Rod. 1994. The study of Second Language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Kennedy, Robert. 2017. Phonology: A Course Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Beckman, Mary Esther. 1984. “Typology of Lexical Accent”. ph. D diss. , Cornell University. • Shport, A Irina. 2016. “TRANING ENGLISH LISTNERS TO IDENTIFY PITCH-ACCENT PATTERNS IN TOKYO JAPANESE. ” Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 38: 739 -769 • Klein, Wolfgang. 1986. Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 27 -28 • Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David (2018). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6. 0. 37, retrieved 3 February 2018 from http: //www. praat. org/ UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 27
Acknowledgements • Dr. Mizuki Miyashita (Research adviser) • Dr. Ama Michihiro (Participant recruitment) • The research participants • Jessica Holtz (Experiment testing) • Dr. Tully J Thibeau (SLA inspiration) • Faculty of Linguistics Program • My fellow students in linguistics classes UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 28
Thank you for Listening! [aɾiɡatoː] UMCUR 2018 - Hiranuma 29
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