Saito Kazuya, Munro Murray J
Lang Speech. 2014 Dec;57(Pt 4):451-69. doi: 10.1177/0023830913513206.
Although previous research indicates that Japanese speakers' second language (L2) perception and production of English /see symbol/ may improve with increased L2 experience, relatively little is known about the fine phonetic details of their /see symbol/ productions, especially during the early phase of L2 speech learning. This cross-sectional study examined acoustic properties of word-initial /see symbol/ from 60 Japanese learners with a length of residence of between one month and one year in Canada. Their performance was compared to that of 15 native speakers of English and 15 low-proficiency Japanese learners of English. Formant frequencies (F2 and F3) and F1 transition durations were evaluated under three task conditions--word reading, sentence reading, and timed picture description. Learners with as little as two to three months of residence demonstrated target-like F2 frequencies. In addition, increased LOR was predictive of more target-like transition durations. Although the learners showed some improvement in F3 as a function of LOR, they did so mainly at a controlled level of speech production. The findings suggest that during the early phase of L2 segmental development, production accuracy is task-dependent and is influenced by the availability of L1 phonetic cues for redeployment in L2.
尽管先前的研究表明，以日语为母语的人对英语 /see symbol/ 的第二语言（L2）感知和发音可能会随着L2经验的增加而改善，但对于他们 /see symbol/ 发音的精细语音细节，尤其是在L2语音学习的早期阶段，人们了解得相对较少。这项横断面研究考察了60名在加拿大居住时间为1个月至1年的日语学习者词首 /see symbol/ 的声学特性。将他们的表现与15名以英语为母语的人以及15名低水平的日语英语学习者进行了比较。在单词朗读、句子朗读和限时图片描述这三种任务条件下评估了共振峰频率（F2和F3）以及F1过渡时长。居住时间短至两到三个月的学习者就表现出类似目标的F2频率。此外，居住时间的增加预示着过渡时长更接近目标。尽管学习者的F3随着居住时间的增加有所改善，但主要是在受控的语音产生水平上。研究结果表明，在L2音段发展的早期阶段，发音准确性取决于任务，并受到L1语音线索在L2中重新部署可用性的影响。
