Abstract
The present study investigated the extent to which accent sensitivity provides the foundation for lexical knowledge and listening comprehension for Japanese university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). On an English accent correctness (i.e., YES/NO response) decision task, 63 participants showed considerably high accuracy and speed in identifying correctly-accented nouns (82.14% and 1091 ms) and adverbs (86.67% and 959 ms). However, students were much less accurate in rejecting incorrectly-accented nouns (72.33% and 910 ms) and adverbs (67.67% and 933 ms). The results of a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that accent sensitivity makes no contribution to either participants’ lexical knowledge or listening comprehension skills. In contrast, a strong direct effect was found from lexical knowledge to listening comprehension. As such, accent knowledge by Japanese EFL students is isolated from their lexical knowledge, with no contribution to their ability for listening comprehension.
Highlights
It has long been understood that successful communication depends on word recognition (McQueen, 2007)
Numerous textbooks are available for learning/teaching English stress accents (e.g., Beckman, 1986; Childs, 2004; Mojsin, 2009), little remains known as to the extent that English as a foreign language (EFL) student accent sensitivity contributes to lexical knowledge and/or listening comprehension
For correct YES responses, EFL students demonstrated high accuracy and speed at 82.14% and 1091 ms for correctly-accented nouns, and at 86.67% and 959 ms for correctly-accented adverbs
Summary
It has long been understood that successful communication depends on word recognition (McQueen, 2007). Numerous textbooks are available for learning/teaching English stress accents (e.g., Beckman, 1986; Childs, 2004; Mojsin, 2009), little remains known as to the extent that EFL student accent sensitivity contributes to lexical knowledge and/or listening comprehension. Since stress accents are integral to English words, accent sensitivity can be expected on logical grounds to contribute to lexical knowledge. If this is so, accent sensitivity may be further assumed to affect listening comprehension via lexical knowledge. The present study investigated: 1) how quickly and accurately Japanese university EFL students can correctly identify canonical English stressaccent; 2) whether or not accent sensitivity is related to lexical knowledge; and 3) to what extent accent sensitivity, whether directly or via lexical knowledge, contributes to listening comprehension. Repeated exposure to mispronounced (i.e., incorrectly accented or stressed English) words that have become popularly entrenched in mainstream society would constitute both a frequency of occurrence bias (see Luce & Pisoni, 1998) and a contextual constraint that inhibits their ability to correctly identify accurate pronunciation of English words
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