Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation Yuna Hiranuma University of Montana/Kobe City University of Foreign.

Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation
Yuna Hiranuma University of Montana/Kobe City University of Foreign Studies UM Conference on Undergraduate Research Friday, April 27, 2018. UMCUR Hiranuma

Kanji: Chinese character having meaning for each
“Kanji is really difficult, but the pronunciation of Japanese is really easy to acquire!” Kanji: Chinese character having meaning for each UMCUR Hiranuma

Japanese Pronunciation for American learners
Comparing vowels.... Comparing consonants.... Syllable Structure is much simpler in Japanese than in English English 13 i ɪ e æ ə ɜ u ʊ o ʌ ɔ ɑ Japanese 5 a ɯ English 25 p b m ʍ w f v θ ð t d n s z l ɹ ʃ ʒ t͡ʃ d͡ʒ j k ɡ ŋ h Japanese 19 ʔ ɾ ɕ c ʝ UMCUR Hiranuma

Japanese Pronunciation for American learners
How about intonation? English Japanese adding some nuance ex) You saw him↓VS You saw him↑ Intonation Japanese word meaning change ex) ame or Isn’t it challenging for the learners to acquire intonation in Japanese? UMCUR Hiranuma

This study is about Intonation in Japanese
This study investigates Japanese intonation But, not about the intonation that change meanings like ame Investigation about whether American learners acquire intonation like Japanese people do UMCUR Hiranuma

Background Second Language Acquisition Transfer
Suprasegmental Language Transfer UMCUR Hiranuma

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
What is second language acquisition (SLA)? SLA: how an adult acquire a language other than first language first language (L1)= native language second language (L2) = any other language than L1 UMCUR Hiranuma

Transfer that [ðat] [dat] What is language transfer?
The prior knowledge of all the aspect of L1 structure influencing the aspects of L2(Saville-Troike, 2006) For example... [ðat] native English speakers SLA を最初に言ってから that [dat] German learners of English Transfer: German → English UMCUR Hiranuma

Suprasegmental Language Transfer
How about suprasegmental language transfer? Suprasegmentals = tone, intonation, stress Studies about sound are less studied than the other domains in second language acquisition (SLA) Moreover, suprasegmentals among sound studies are rarely examined! Japanese pitch-accent contrasts and phrasal intonation are known to be challenging in both perception and production (Ayusawa, 2003) テクニカルすぎ？ UMCUR Hiranuma

Question [hɪɹənúmə] [hiɾanɯma]
Suprasegmental transfer from American English to Japanese? word prominence language type English pitch & loudness stress-accent language Japanese pitch pitch-accent language Beckman (1984) For example... my family name ‘Hiranuma’ Japasese vs. English [hiɾanɯma] [hɪɹənúmə] pitch & loudness pitch UMCUR Hiranuma

Hypothesis A Japanese word pronounced by American learners of Japanese might have phonetic correlation of word prominence, pitch and loudness Example: terebi ‘TV’ American learners: terebi pitch& loudness Japanese native speakers: terebi pitch UMCUR Hiranuma

Methods Participants Tasks Data processing UMCUR Hiranuma

Period of Japanese Learning
Participants Research participants: American learners of Japanese in JPN201/Fall2017 Gender Age Home City Period of Japanese Learning (Year) A female 33 Dallas (TX) 1 ½ B 18 Denver (CO) 4 C 19 Victor (MT) D 24 Kodiak (AK) 7 E Missoula (MT) F male 20 Kalispell (MT) ST UMCUR Hiranuma

Participants Research participants: Japanese native speakers Gender
Age Home City Period of staying at UM (month) a female 21 Tokyo 4 b male 9 c 23 UMCUR Hiranuma

Tasks Japanese Romanization English equivalent 1 テレビ terebi
‘television’ 2 モンタナ montana ‘Montana’ 3 ピカチュウ pikachuu ‘Pikachu’ 4 いす isu ‘chair’ 5 しんかんせん shinkansen ‘bullet train’ 6 プレゼント purezento ‘present’ 7 すし sushi ‘sushi’ 8 まんが manga ‘comic book’ 9 クレジットカード kurejittokaado ‘credit card’ 10 カラオケ karaoke ‘karaoke’ UMCUR Hiranuma

terebi ‘TV(television)’
Tasks ①terebi (with picture) ②terebi (with no picture) terebi ‘TV(television)’ UMCUR Hiranuma

Data Processing Pitch (F0) and loudness (dB) of each vowel in a word are measured by plotting the middle part in stable area F0 Measurement point Stable area Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2018) UMCUR Hiranuma

Data Processing →correlation →non-correlation isu ‘chair’ sushi i su
Participant A: American learners i su isu ‘chair’ pitch (F0) 236 182 loudness (dB) 66 55 →correlation Participant D: American learners su shi sushi pitch (F0) 115 383 loudness (dB) 56 53 →non-correlation UMCUR Hiranuma

Results Results Findings UMCUR Hiranuma

Result Pitch-intensity correlation of 10 Japanese words P<0.01
(1) American learners (2) Japanese native speakers Subject (n=6) Correlation Subject (n=3) A 7 b 5 B c 4 C 8 d D MEAN E STDV 1.41 F 6 6.33 1.21 P<0.01 UMCUR Hiranuma

Result Conducted T-test: P<0.01
Both groups are significantly different The data can be considered as indicating the correlation difference between two groups UMCUR Hiranuma

Conclusion&Implications
Findings & Conclusion Implications Applications UMCUR Hiranuma

Findings & Conclusion Pitch-loudness correlation in Japanese
American learners > Japanese native speakers English : stress-accent language →　pitch & loudness Japanese : pitch-accent language → pitch Suprasegmental language transfer tend to occur in Japanese pronunciation by American learners from English UMCUR Hiranuma

Implication: What the learners are advised to do
Consciousness of difference → L2 development (Saito & Wu, 2014) Learners might not be aware of Japanese having intonation that is different from English To master Japanese pronunciation, the learners are advised To understand the suprasegmental difference between English and Japanse To pay attention not only to sounds itself but also intonation in Japanese It can be applied to the learning methods of other pitch-accent languages UMCUR Hiranuma

References Muriel Saville-Troike Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, Rod The study of Second Language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kennedy, Robert Phonology: A Course Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beckman, Mary Esther “Typology of Lexical Accent”. phD diss., Cornell University. Shport, A Irina “TRANING ENGLISH LISTNERS TO IDENTIFY PITCH-ACCENT PATTERNS IN TOKYO JAPANESE.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 38: Klein, Wolfgang Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 27-28 Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David (2018). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version , retrieved 3 February 2018 from UMCUR Hiranuma

Acknowledgements Dr. Mizuki Miyashita (Research adviser)
Dr. Ama Michihiro (Participant recruitment) The research participants Jessica Holtz (Experiment testing) Dr. Tully J Thibeau (SLA inspiration) Faculty of Linguistics Program My fellow students in linguistics classes UMCUR Hiranuma

Thank you for Listening!
[aɾiɡatoː] UMCUR Hiranuma

Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation Yuna Hiranuma University of Montana/Kobe City University of Foreign.

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Suprasegmental Production by American Learners of Japanese: A Phonetic Investigation Yuna Hiranuma University of Montana/Kobe City University of Foreign.

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