Foreign accent in L2 Japanese: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

The current study examines acoustic sources of foreign accent in second language Japanese produced by American learners across different instructional levels and learning backgrounds. Our prior work has demonstrated that pitch accent, vowel duration, and spectral information of the vowel [e] influence perceived foreign accent in Japanese short sentences produced by intermediate learners, with pitch accent exerting the strongest influence. Building on this prior finding, the current study examines Japanese produced by American learners at the beginning level (n = 10), at the intermediate level (n = 16), American learners who have had early exposure to Japanese (n = 10), native Japanese speakers (n = 10), and ratings of the speech samples by native Japanese listeners (n = 10) to investigate the difference in the extent of perceived accent in their speech and the acoustic sources that influence perceived accent. The results of the current study shed light on issues related to development of second language speech, and the perceptual relevance of the development to lay listeners.