The acquisition and teaching of Japanese rhythm (original) (raw)

Abstract

KINOSHITA, Naoko, March, 2011, Waseda University Press. This book reports the results of research into the rhythm acquisition processes of Korean learners of Japanese as a second language, and then uses those results to suggest practical implications for the teaching of Japanese rhythm. Regardless of the fact that Korean learners of Japanese find learning the rhythm of Japanese speech difficult, there has been very limited research either into the acquisition of rhythm or into effective teaching methods. There are at least two likely reasons for this. First, the measurement of rhythm has been problematic. Research into Japanese language acquisition has often used the haku as a unit of measurement. However, this concept is native to Japanese, and unable to provide any useful basis of comparison with the L1 of the learner. A second problem has been with data collection. Research to date into the acquisition of L2 pronunciation has been short term rather than longitudinal in design, probably because of the difficulty of gathering participants and a suitable recording environment for any lengthy period of time. A factor to be considered is that most of the research that has been done has investigated either productive or receptive competence, allowing for little insight into the interaction between production and reception in acquisition. Also, although motivation and strategy use have been well documented as factors having important roles in language learning, there has been little research investigating these in the acquisition of second language phonology. The research reported in this book has attempted to take into account or resolve the issues and factors already mentioned. It did this by: 1) attempting to determine a rhythm measurement method which was both able to compare the non-native speaker’s rhythm with their first language, and to track their development over time, 2) investigating the acquisition of ‘Japanese’ receptive and productive rhythm over a longer term - a period of three years, 3) attempting to determine the characteristics of Korean reading rhythm and compare these with the characteristics of Japanese and English rhythms, 4) investigating the relationship between acquisition of receptive and productive rhythm, 5) investigating the influence of individual learner differences (language proficiency, learning period, learning styles, motivation, learning strategies, beliefs, and working memory) on the acquisition of rhythm. A brief summary of the findings is as follows: 1) PVI (Grabe and Low, 2002) proved to be an effective measure which was able to demonstrate development in learner rhythm. 2) In perception and production, the acquisition of long vowels was considerably delayed when compared to geminate and nasal consonants. 3) Korean rhythm is different to that of both English and Japanese. The nPVI values for consonants and vowels in Korean were greater than those in Japanese. 4) There was no apparent correlation between the acquisition of receptive and productive rhythm. 5) There was no relationship found between the acquisition of rhythm and general language proficiency. However, there was a relationship found between learning styles, motivation, beliefs, strategy use and working memory capacity. After an analysis of the current textbooks and materials aiming to teach rhythm, the book explores the practical implications of these results for teaching. Chapter 8 proposes a methodology which reflects the research findings and provides examples.

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