Abstract
This study compared cross-language speech perception of vowel length contrasts in Arabic and Japanese by two groups of listeners whose first language (L1) was either Cantonese (C) or Korean (K). Unlike Arabic or Japanese, C and K do not use vowel length contrastively. One group (CK+J) had experience learning Japanese as a foreign
language while the other (CK) did not. The question of interest was if Japanese learning experience separated the two groups in their perception of Arabic as well as Japanese vowel length contrasts. The effect of learning Japanese was negligible for CK+J who participated in this study. Further, it appeared that learning Japanese
had a somewhat negative effect on the listeners’ perception of Arabic contrasts. The pattern of results obtained may reflect a temporary and transient nature of listeners’ interlanguage and has implications for adults’ speech learning
capabilities.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 17th international congress of phonetic sciences ICPhS XVII |
Editors | Wai-Sum Lee |
Place of Publication | Hong Kong |
Publisher | City University |
Pages | 2034-2037 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Event | International Conference on Phonetic Sciences (17th : 2011) - Hong Kong Duration: 17 Aug 2011 → 21 Aug 2011 |
Conference
Conference | International Conference on Phonetic Sciences (17th : 2011) |
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City | Hong Kong |
Period | 17/08/11 → 21/08/11 |
Keywords
- multilingual
- cross-language speech perception
- vowel length
- Cantonese
- Korean