Perceptual assimilation patterns and the perception of English /l/ and /ɹ/ by Japanese speakers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the perceptual assimilation patterns and the discrimination of English /l/ and /ɹ/ by Japanese speakers. The participants were 50 Japanese adults differing in their length of residence (LOR) in the U.S. In an identification task, they usually identified both English /l/ and /ɹ/ as Japanese /ɹ/. In a rating task, English /l/ was judged to be significantly more similar to Japanese /ɹ/ than English /ɹ/ was. The participants with a longer LOR gave lower similarity ratings for both English /l/ and /ɹ/ than those with a shorter LOR, suggesting that they became more aware of phonetic differences between Japanese /ɹ/ and English /l/ and /ɹ/. An exploratory analysis on similarity ratings was conducted for a subset of participants (N=28) based on their scores on /l/–/ɹ/ discrimination. Both relatively poor and relatively good discriminators judged /l/ to be more similar to Japanese /ɹ/ than /ɹ/, but the degree of difference between /l/ and /ɹ/ in terms of similarity ratings as Japanese /ɹ/ was smaller among poor discriminators than better discriminators. This suggests that the degree of ‘‘goodness-of-fit’’ as an L1 category may affect the ability to discriminate two L2 consonants. [Work supported by NIH.]