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

本研究的目的有两方面：一是探讨不同的教学方法对日语学习者英语节奏模式习得的影响；并观察弱形式与实义词在习得的顺序、速度和程度上的差异。本研究采用两组日本受试者（每组12人，共24人）和12名美国受试者作为研究对象。其中一组日本人参加了为期4个月的发音培训课程（第一组），而在同一时期，另一组人参加了一所大学的英语口语课程，重点是对话和表达（第二组）。日本人课前的英语能力采用托业（TOEIC）测试（第一组平均472分；第二组平均450分）。实验中使用的语言材料都是短文。在第一组中，我们观察到训练在产生节奏模式方面的显著效果。具体来说，他们开始表现出一种弱形式和实词的生产模式，这种生产模式是朝着英语母语者的生产模式发展的。于是，那些日本人开始在句子的实现中表现出句子重音的运用。与实义词的持续控制相比，弱形式对日语来说更困难。另一个日语组（第二组）在弱形式和实义词的产生模式上没有明显的改善，尽管他们的语速有所提高。本研究显示了教学方法效果的显著差异，显示了在没有国外学习等语言环境的情况下，短时间内习得英语节奏的可能性。

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.