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Cited by 913Phonetics and Phonology ResearchEFL/ESL Teaching and LearningCategorization, perception, and language

Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: A first report

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Logan, John S., Lively, Scott E., Pisoni, David B.·1991·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
DOI 10.1121/1.1894649PMC PMC3518834
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Abstract

Native speakers of Japanese learning English generally have difficulty differentiating the phonemes /r/ and /l/, even after years of experience with English. Previous research that attempted to train Japanese listeners to distinguish this contrast using synthetic stimuli reported little success, especially when transfer to natural tokens containing /r/ and /l/ was tested. In the present study, a different training procedure that emphasized variability among stimulus tokens was used. Japanese subjects were trained in a minimal pair identification paradigm using multiple natural exemplars contrasting /r/ and /l/ from a variety of phonetic environments as stimuli. A pretest-posttest design containing natural tokens was used to assess the effects of training. Results from six subjects showed that the new procedure was more robust than earlier training techniques. Small but reliable differences in performance were obtained between pretest and posttest scores. The results demonstrate the importance of stimulus variability and task-related factors in training nonnative speakers to perceive novel phonetic contrasts that are not distinctive in their native language.

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  • Adult performance on non-native contrasts can be increased by techniques that minimize memory effects, extensive training, and use of contrasts not related to native-language categories.

    “Adult performance on non-native contrasts could be increased by a number of factors: (i) the use of techniques that minimize the effects of memory (33, 34), (ii) extensive training (35, 36), and (iii) the use of contrasts, such as Zulu clicks, that are not related to native-language categories (37, 38).”

    From A new view of language acquisition (2000) · cites this paper as [35]

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Authors
Logan, J. S., Lively, S. E., & Pisoni, D. B.
Affiliations
Indiana University Bloomington (US)
ORCID
Pisoni, David B.
Venue
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Publisher
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Published
1991-02-01
Volume
89
Issue
2
Pages
874-886
ISSN
  • 0001-4966 (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-8524
DOI
10.1121/1.1894649
PMC
PMC3518834
OpenAlex
W2037249514
Cited by
913
References
25
Citations by year
2026: 21 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 66 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 38 · 2012: 40
FWCI
9.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01dc000111-38)
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01 DC-000111, DC-00111-13, F32DC000111, K08DC000111)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
Keywords
Japanese listeners, stimulus variability, non-native speech perception, English as a second language
MeSH terms
Adult, Asian, Attention, Generalization, Stimulus, Humans, Indiana, Japan, Language, Phonetics, Speech Perception

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