Effective Teaching Methods of Spoken Language: From the Viewpoint of Acquistion of English Rhythmic Patterns by Japanese Learners

本研究的目的有两个：一是调查不同教学方法对日本学习者英语韵律习得的影响；二是观察弱形式词和实词在习得顺序、速度和程度上的差异。两组日本受试者(每组12名受试者，共24名受试者)和12名美国受试者作为本研究的受试者。其中一组日本受试者只接受了4个月的发音训练(第一组)，而另一组受试者在同一时期参加了一所大学的英语口语课程，重点是会话和演讲(第二组)。采用托业考试(TOEIC)对日本学生上课前的英语能力进行测试(第1组平均得分为472分，第2组平均得分为450分)。实验中使用的语言材料是短文，在第一组中，我们观察到了训练在产生节奏模式方面的显著效果。具体地说，他们开始表现出一种针对英语母语者的弱形式词和实义词的生产模式。于是，日本人开始在实现句子的过程中表现出句子重音的使用。与实词的时长控制相比，弱形式对日语来说更难控制。另一组日本人(第二组)在弱形式词和实词的生产模式上没有明显的改善，尽管他们的语速有了改善。这项研究表明，不同教学方法的效果有显著差异，表明在没有留学等语言环境的帮助下，短时间内获得英语节奏是可能的。

The purpose of the present study was two-fold: to investigate the effects of different teaching methods on the acquisition of English rhythmic patterns by Japanese learners; and to observe the differences between weak forms and content words with respect to the order, speed and degree of the acquisition. Two groups of Japanese subjects (12 subjects for each group, a total of 24 subjects) and 12 Americans served as subjects in this study. One group of the Japanese subjects attended a class where the subjects had only a training of pronunciation for 4 months (Group 1), while during the same period the other group of subjects attended an Oral English class at a university whose focus was conversation and presentation (Group 2). The English abilities of those Japanese before taking the classes were measured by TOEIC (Group 1, average score of 472; Group 2, average score of 450). The linguistic materials used in the experiments were short passages.In the case of Group 1, we observed conspicuous effects of the training in the production of rhythmic patterns. Concretely, they began to show a production pattern of weak forms and content words which was directed toward the production pattern of native speakers of English. Thus, those Japanese began to display the use of sentence accent in the realization of sentences. As compared to the durational control of content words, weak forms were found to be more difficult for Japanese. The other Japanese Group (Group 2) did not show conspicuous improvement in the production pattern of weak forms and content words, although their rate of speech showed improvement. This study showed a significant difference in the effects of teaching methods, displaying the possibility of acquisition of English rhythm for a short period without the benefit of linguistic environments such as studying abroad.