Effects of perceptual assmilation on the production of English vowels by native Japanese speakers

Abstract

In our previous studies, it was found that English vowel contrasts that were difficult for Japanese speakers to discriminate were for the most part identified with the same Japanese vowels. This finding complies with one the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best, 1995) postulates. The present study investigated how perceptual assimilation affects production of English vowels by Japanese speakers. Three experienced Japanese learners in Columbus, Ohio, and five inexperienced Japanese learners in Kobe, Japan produced English vowels, repeating after two different native speakers’ utterances. Each subject heard the same token twice in a different order, so they each produced four tokens of each English vowel. The results support what our previous studies have found, and show the effects of perception on production. The production of the vowels difficult to discriminate tended to be close to each other within subjects’ production vowel space. The production of the vowels identified as good exemplars of Japanese vowels were more stable than those identified as poor exemplars. Thus, the subjects /i/ tokens were almost always identified as /i/, whereas their /æ/ tokens were often identified as /ε/, /ɑ/, or /ʌ/. Experienced learners’ utterances were far more correctly identified.