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Cited by 225Phonetics and Phonology ResearchEFL/ESL Teaching and LearningLinguistic Variation and Morphology

Japanese Adults can Learn to Produce English /I/ and /l/ Accurately

Flege, James Emil, Takagi, Naoyuki, Mann, Virginia·1995·Language and Speech
DOI 10.1177/002383099503800102
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Abstract

As is well known, Japanese adults who have just begun to learn English often err in producing /I/ and /l/ because their native language does not possess such liquid consonants. The aim of this study was to determine if Japanese adults eventually learn to produce /I/ and /l/ accurately in words like read and lead. Liquids spoken by 12 native Japanese speakers who had lived in the United States for an average of two years were often misidentified by native English-speaking listeners. Their productions of /I/ and /l/ also received much lower (and thus foreign-accented) ratings than did the native English speakers' liquids. On the other hand, liquids produced by native Japanese speakers who had lived in the United States for an average 21 years were identified correctly in forced-choice tests. This held true for liquids in words that had been read from a list as well as for words that had been spoken spontaneously. The ratings of liquids produced by 10 of the 12 experienced Japanese speakers fell within the range of ratings obtained for the 12 native English speakers. These findings challenge the widely accepted view that segmental production errors in a second language arise from the inevitable loss of ability to learn phonetic segments not found in the native language.

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  • When acquiring a second language, certain phonetic distinctions are notoriously difficult to master both in speech perception and production, as shown by the difficulty of the /r-l/ distinction for native speakers of Japanese even after training.

    “When acquiring a second language, certain phonetic distinctions are notoriously difficult to master both in speech perception and production, as shown, for example, by the difficulty of the /r-l/ distinction for native speakers of Japanese, even after training (11, 78, 111, 112).”

    From A new view of language acquisition (2000) · cites this paper as [111]

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Authors
Flege, J. E., Takagi, N., & Mann, V.
Affiliations
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
  • Shosen University, Tokyo
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
ORCID
Flege, James Emil
Venue
Language and Speech
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
1995-01
Volume
38
Issue
1
Pages
25-55
ISSN
  • 0023-8309 (ISSN-L)
  • 1756-6053
DOI
10.1177/002383099503800102
OpenAlex
W2411353279
Cited by
225
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 5
FWCI
7.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Language and Speech (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC00257, R01DC000257)
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 › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
Keywords
Japanese learners of English, liquid consonants, second language pronunciation, segmental errors, native language phonology, foreign accent, speech perception, second language acquisition
MeSH terms
Adult, Female, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Phonetics, Speech, Speech Acoustics, Speech Production Measurement, United States

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