An Applied Study of Word Recognition and Development from a Phonological Viewpoint

本文研究了日语片假名外来词的语音结构、词识别和发音的发展过程，以及片假名外来词对二语英语和二语日语习得的影响。2003年，我们研究了在英语学习的早期阶段引入与日语中片假名对应的发音相似的英语单词是否有效。本研究使用速音镜和CSL来研究片假名外来词是否会干扰二语英语单词的发音；片假名外来词的词汇熟悉度对二语词汇识别的影响。结果表明，在英语学习的早期阶段，在日语中引入语音相似的片假名对应词是无效的。2004年，我们研究了语音结构或单词熟悉度是否能更充分地解释日语假名中的口音扁平化。以-LL结尾的片假名-go外来词，即LLLL和HLL，出现在词典中的平调重音模式的比例较高，但我们发现这并不能完全解释片假名-go外来词为什么倾向于平调重音；在平调发音的英语单词中，熟悉度高的外来词在日语中有相似度高的外来词，熟悉度高的片假名外来词在英语中有相似度高的外来词，发音也倾向于平调。我们再次证实，口音扁平化与单词熟悉度显著相关。我们对学习日语的台湾学生进行了同样的实验，发现日本学生的口音变平了，而台湾学生却没有。结果表明，注重英语单词的语音感知是一种有效的教学方法，尤其是在英语学习的早期阶段。少

The present study is concerned with the phonological structure, word recognition and the development process of how katakana-go loanwords in Japanese are pronounced, and its influence on the acquisition of L2 English as well as L2 Japanese.In 2003, we examined whether or not it is effective to introduce, at the earliest stage of English learning, English words which have phonetically similar katakana-go counterparts in Japanese. Using a tachistoscope and a CSL, we investigated if katakana-go loanwords would interfere with the pronunciation of L2 English words; and how the word familiarity of katakana-go loanwords would influence on the recognition of L2 English words. The results indicated that it is not effective to introduce English words with phonetically similar katakana-go counterparts in Japanese at the earliest stage of English learning.In 2004, we examined whether the phonological structure or word familiarity would more adequately account for accent flattening in Japanese kata … More kana-go loanwords. The rate of katakana-go loanwords with a flat accent pattern appearing in dictionaries is high when they have the -LL ending, viz. LLLL and HLL, but we found it cannot fully explain why katakana-go loanwords tend to be pronounced with the flat accent; and that among English words pronounced with the flat accent, those which have high familiarity tend to have high-familiarity loanword counterparts in Japanese, and that katakana-go loanwords whose familiarity is high have high-familiarity counterparts in English and tend to be pronounced with the flat accent. We confirmed again accent flattening was significantly correlated with word familiarity.We conducted the same experiments with Taiwanese students learning Japanese and found accent flattening happened with Japanese students but not the Taiwanese students. The results indicate that an effective teaching method might be to focus on phonetic perception of English words, especially at the earliest stage of English learning. Less