The early phase of /see symbol/ production development in adult Japanese learners of English.

Abstract

Although previous research indicates that Japanese speakers' second language (L2) perception and production of English /see symbol/ may improve with increased L2 experience, relatively little is known about the fine phonetic details of their /see symbol/ productions, especially during the early phase of L2 speech learning. This cross-sectional study examined acoustic properties of word-initial /see symbol/ from 60 Japanese learners with a length of residence of between one month and one year in Canada. Their performance was compared to that of 15 native speakers of English and 15 low-proficiency Japanese learners of English. Formant frequencies (F2 and F3) and F1 transition durations were evaluated under three task conditions--word reading, sentence reading, and timed picture description. Learners with as little as two to three months of residence demonstrated target-like F2 frequencies. In addition, increased LOR was predictive of more target-like transition durations. Although the learners showed some improvement in F3 as a function of LOR, they did so mainly at a controlled level of speech production. The findings suggest that during the early phase of L2 segmental development, production accuracy is task-dependent and is influenced by the availability of L1 phonetic cues for redeployment in L2.