Is it blow or below? Non-native listeners' perception of words that contrast in syllable count

Abstract

Non-native speakers often have difficulty accurately producing and perceiving the syllable structure of a second language. For example, Japanese learners of English often insert epenthetic vowels when producing English words, e.g., stress produced as /sutoresu/. Similarly, when asked to count syllables in spoken English words, they frequently overestimate the number of syllables, suggesting that they tend to perceptually insert epenthetic vowels between adjacent consonants. These tendencies suggest the possibility that learners may have difficulty distinguishing between English words that contrast in syllable count, i.e., words that differ in the presence/absence of a vowel, e.g., blow-below, sport-support. Furthermore, if listeners perceptually insert epenthetic vowels, then they should misperceive blow as below more often than below as blow. To test these predictions, Japanese listeners participated in a 2AFC identification task, using 78 English minimal pairs contrasting in syllable count such as blow-below. Results showed that Japanese listeners indeed had difficulty with this task. However, misidentification of blow-type words as below was less frequent than misidentification of below-type words as blow, contrary to predictions based on perceptual epenthesis. These results suggest that simple comparison of syllable structure between languages may not suffice to predict difficulties in L2 speech perception. [Work supported by JSPS.]