Japanese Prosody and Its Role in Comprehensibility: Exploration and Training
Date
2024-04-25
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Abstract
Prosody has gained attention in L2 pronunciation research due to findings indicating that prosodic features, such as rhythm, stress, duration, and changes in pitch, have a great influence on listeners’ understanding. In Study 1, I investigated how Japanese prosody affects intelligibility and comprehensibility, with the goal of advancing our understanding of L2 Japanese prosody, as it has seen limited progress thus far. In the study, deliberate speech errors involving vowel length, consonant length, and pitch accent were produced by Japanese and English learners of Japanese. Words with and without these prosody errors were then evaluated by Japanese listeners. Results show that intelligibility is significantly affected by a combination of segmental length and pitch accent errors, while comprehensibility is almost equally impacted by each prosodic feature, whether combined or independent. Furthermore, while there is no significant difference in intelligibility of speech produced by Japanese and English L1 speakers, there is a significant difference for comprehensibility, suggesting that processing L2 speech requires more effort. In Study 2, I designed prosody training for English learners of Japanese, with a focus on vowel length and pitch accent. The training incorporated two methods—embodied and computer-assisted techniques—which were compared to determine their effectiveness in training these features. The accuracy of L2 perception and production of the target features was examined at pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest, revealing a significant overall improvement regardless of the methods used. This highlights the positive effects of both methods, yielding results within a short timeframe. These findings shed light on the crucial role of prosody in Japanese in improving L2 intelligibility and comprehensibility, which can be achieved by focused instruction using embodied and computer-assisted techniques. These techniques can be readily used in language classrooms, empowering teachers to develop effective pronunciation instruction.
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Japanese, prosody errors, pitch accent, segmental length contrast, intelligibility, comprehensibility, prosody training, focused instruction
Citation
Shimada, M. (2024). Japanese prosody and its role in comprehensibility: exploration and training (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.