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The acquisition of /r/ and /l/ by Japanese learners of English: Evidence that speech production can precede speech perception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Amy Sheldon*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Winifred Strange
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Amy Sheldon, Department of Linguistics, 142 Klaeber Court, University of Minnesota, 320 16th Avenue, S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the production and perception of English /r/ and /l/ by native Japanese adults learning English in the United States. For some subjects, production of the contrast was more accurate than their perception of it, replicating and extending a previous finding reported by Goto (1971) in Japan. The difficulty in perception of the liquid contrast varied with its position in the word. Prevocalic /r/ and /l/ in consonant clusters yielded the greatest perceptual errors, while word-final liquids were accurately perceived. This pattern of errors is not predictable on the basis of contrastive phonological analysis, but might be the result of acoustic-phonetic factors. Implications for second language pedagogy are discussed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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