Ryan Corrigan

First Name: 
Ryan
Last Name: 
Corrigan
Mentor: 
Dr. Konstantia Kapetangianni
Abstract: 
Previous studies regarding native Japanese speakers’ perception of English nasals have been performed and have found that native Japanese speakers have significant difficulty distinguishing between English syllable-final nasals /n/, as in pan, and /ŋ/, as in sing (Aoyama, 2003; Cheon & Nozawa, 2012). However, little research has been carried out on native Japanese speakers’ production of nasals (Aoyama, 1999). This study addresses the following questions: What problems do native Japanese speakers have when producing English syllable-final nasals? Can the Speech Learning Model (SLM) (Fledge, 1995) explain the problems native Japanese speakers have when producing English syllable-final nasals? This study will focus on native Japanese speakers’ perception and pronunciation of nasals, /n/, /m/ and /ng/, in syllable-final position by analyzing the syllable-final nasals of native Japanese speakers. The two participants were first tested to determine if they have difficulties in perception of English syllable-final nasals. They were then provide similarity ratings between the L1 and L2 nasals, so that possible production issues can be analyzed in terms of the Speech Learning Model (SLM). The stimuli for these two tasks will be recorded by a single native English speaker, in the frame “the next word is ___.” The researcher will make sure each word is pronounced clearly. Lastly, the participants will read English sentences with syllable-final nasals. The recordings will be analyzed in Praat for accurate production. It is hypothesized that difficulties with perception will affect production due to the perceived similarity of L1 and L2 segments, and native Japanese speakers will have significant difficulty pronouncing English nasals in syllable-final position, especially /n/. This study will contribute to the understanding of pronunciation difficulties native Japanese speakers have when learning English as well as the understanding of theories dealing with L2 production errors, such as SLM. Aoyama, K. (1999) Reanalyzing Japanese coda nasal in Optimality Theory. In S.J Hwang (.Ed) & A.R Lommel (Ed.), Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States LACUS Forum XXVI (105-117). Fullerton, CA: Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States. Aoyama, K. (2003). Perception of syllable-initial and syllable-final nasals in English by Korean and Japanese speakers. Second Language Research. 19: 251-265. Cheon, S.Y & Nozawa, T. (2012). The Identification of Nasals in a Coda Position by Native Speakers of American English, Korean, and Japanese. Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 16 (2): 5-14. Flege, J. (1995). Second-Language Speech Learning: Theory, Findings and Problems, in W. Strange (Ed.), Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross-Language Research (223-273), Timonium, MD: York
Poster: 
Production of English Syllable-Final Nasals by Native Speakers of Japanese