Effects of consonantal contexts on the perception of English vowels by experienced and inexperienced Japanese learners of English

Abstract

The perception of English vowels by experienced and inexperienced Japanese learners of English in different consonantal context were compared. Experienced Japanese learners of English were recruited in Gainesville, FL and inexperienced Japanese learners of English were recruited in Kobe, Japan and vicinity. In one experiment, subjects’ ability was tested to discriminate English vowels in different consonantal contexts. What was expected to affect the discriminability was (1) voicing of the preceding and the following stops, (2) places of articulation of the preceding and the following stops, and (3) nasality of the following consonant. In another experiment, the subjects identified English vowels in terms of Japanese vowel categories. Generally, English vowels identified with the same Japanese vowels were more difficult to discriminate than those identified with different vowels. In both experiments, the inexperienced learners were more susceptible to talker and consonantal context differences. [Work supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)(1410635).]