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The effects of identification training on the identification and production of American English vowels by native speakers of Japanese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2005

STEPHEN G. LAMBACHER ,
WILLIAM L. MARTENS ,
KAZUHIKO KAKEHI ,
CHANDRAJITH A. MARASINGHE  and
GARRY MOLHOLT
STEPHEN G. LAMBACHER
Affiliation:
University of Aizu
WILLIAM L. MARTENS
Affiliation:
McGill University
KAZUHIKO KAKEHI
Affiliation:
Chukyo University
CHANDRAJITH A. MARASINGHE
Affiliation:
University of Aizu
GARRY MOLHOLT
Affiliation:
West Chester University
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Abstract

The effectiveness of a high variability identification training procedure to improve native Japanese identification and production of the American English (AE) mid and low vowels /æ/, //, //, //, // was investigated. Vowel identification and production performance for two groups of Japanese participants was measured before and after a 6-week identification training period. Recordings were made of both group's pre-/posttraining vowel productions of the five vowels, which were evaluated by a group of native AE listeners using a five-alternative, forced-choice identification task and by an acoustic analysis of the vowel productions. The overall results confirmed that the identification performance of the experimental (trained) participants improved after identification training with feedback and that the training also had a positive effect on their production of the target AE vowels.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 227 - 247
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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