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Japanese English: Norm-dependency and emerging strategies

Preliminary results of an acoustic analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2017

Toshiko Yamaguchi  and
Magnús Pétursson
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Extract

This paper investigates the English language spoken by four educated Japanese speakers from an acoustic phonetic perspective. We look closely at how they pronounce and connect segments in reading a short text. Because English has the status of an international language, it is actively used for various purposes within and across countries. English speakers are therefore not necessarily native speakers but have a different first language (L1); English is a second (L2) or foreign language (FL) for them. There are increasing numbers of studies on Japanese English (JE), particularly from attitudinal and perceptual angles (e.g. Tokumoto & Shibata, 2011; Matsuura et al., 2014), but, as McKenzie (2013: 228) notes, there is a dearth of research that documents, or systematically characterizes, the English produced by Japanese speakers.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 17 - 24
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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