Production and Perception of Rhythm in Second Language Acquisition

本研究旨在探讨日本英语学习者对英语弱形式的感知和产生，以及这些因素对英语节奏习得的影响。首先，部分听写测试是为了测试弱型日语学习者的听力能力。代词和冠词的平均正确感知率从100%到15%不等，具体取决于测试的句子。我们观察到，在日本，语音环境产生了显着的影响程度的难度知觉。进一步的研究进行了测试的持续时间的特点影响感知弱形式。我们比较了声学特征对日本英语学习者和英语本族语者感知英语弱形式的影响。我们发现，日语学习者和英语本族语者在感知时长特征方面表现出很大的差异，同时，我们还考察了英语本族语者和日语学习者的弱形式产出。我们观察到的单词重音的使用在实现句子的日语学习者，相比，使用句子重音的母语。特别是，我们发现两组受试者在弱形式的产生上存在显著差异。因此，研究表明弱形式的产生是英语节奏习得的一个重要因素。此外，语篇焦点对本族语者的时间控制有影响，但对日语学习者没有影响。

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the perception and production of English weak forms and to examine the influence of these factors on the acquisition of rhythm for Japanese learners of English. First, partial dictation tests were designed to test the listening abilities for weak forms of Japanese learners. The average percentage of correct perceptions for pronouns and articles ranged from 100% to 15%, depending on the sentences tested. We observed that, among Japanese, phonetic environments exerted a significant influence on the degree of difficulty of perception. A further study was made to test for durational features affecting the perception of weak forms. We compared the influence of acoustic features on the perception of English weak forms for Japanese learners of English with that of native speakers of English. We found that Japanese learners and native speakers of English behaved very differently with respect to the perception of durational features in their perception.Also, we examined the production of weak forms by native speakers of English and Japanese learners. We observed the use of word accent in the realization of sentences for Japanese learners, as compared to the use of sentence accent for native speakers. Especially, we found a conspicuous difference in the production of weak forms between the two groups of subjects. Thus, the study showed that the production of weak forms is a significant factor in the acquisition of rhythm in English. Furthermore, the influence of focus in discourse on the temporal control was observed for native speakers, but not for Japanese learners.