Perception of complex word‐initial onsets in English by native speakers of Japanese.

Abstract

Past studies have shown that English L2 learners whose native languages have relatively simple syllable structure have different degrees of difficulty in producing complex syllable and word onsets in English. For instance, more marked clusters (e.g., /bj/) were harder to produce than the less marked ones (e.g., /pj/) for Japanese learners of English [E. Broselow and D. Finer, Second Language Research 7, 35–59 (1991)]. However, what is unknown is whether such difficulties reflect problems in perceiving complex syllable structures. The current study tested Japanese L2 learners and American English controls in a categorial ABX discrimination test of eight contrasts between nonsense words with consonant cluster onsets CC(C)VCV versus CəC(C)VCV sequences (e.g., /spani/versus/səpani/) and included /sp, sk, pl, bl, kl, gl, spl, skl/ clusters. Words were imbedded in short sentences to increase task difficulty. Results showed that overall accuracy by the Japanese group was significantly poorer than for the Americans (72% and 98% correct respectively). Certain clusters were harder for Japanese listeners (e.g., 76% correct for /pl/ but 64% for /bl/). Productions of the words were also obtained and are related to perceptual performance.