Paper short abstract:

This study elucidates the Japanese pronunciation-learning methods and provides suggestions for Japanese pronunciation education overseas with respect to learners who came to Japan. The learners were interviewed twice and data were then analyzed qualitatively in terms of pronunciation-learning.

Paper long abstract:

　This study elucidates the Japanese pronunciation-learning methods and provides suggestions for Japanese pronunciation education overseas with respect to learners who came to Japan. Japanese pronunciation education, which focuses on pronunciation as the basis of oral communication, is not implemented well overseas. Furthermore, although there is a discourse that learners’ pronunciation naturally improves when they study abroad, some learners still have pronunciation problems even after studying abroad. Moreover, learners’ pronunciation acquisition process remains to be investigated.

　The study participants were four learners who attended a Japanese university and came to Japan after receiving elementary Japanese pronunciation education online in their home country. The learners were interviewed (1) in December 2021, immediately after completing the online class, and (2) in August 2022, after they came to Japan. Data were then analyzed qualitatively in terms of pronunciation-learning, and categories were generated using 352 codes. This presentation focuses on learners’ pronunciation-learning methods and experiences.

　Consistent with (1) and (2), the interviews showed that learners received feedback on their pronunciation in class, imitated others, and practiced pronunciation using online resources. However, while the interview in (1) revealed that learners had limited opportunities to use the Japanese language outside of class, the interview in (2) revealed that learners had more opportunities to use the Japanese language in real life and experienced difficulty communicating with others. Furthermore, their pronunciation practice models were not only native Japanese speakers but also classmates who were fluent in the Japanese language. Then, they gained insights into the characteristics of Japanese pronunciation, such as the rhythm and accent, and gained a deeper understanding of what they had learned in pronunciation education by listening to others’ pronunciation.

　As suggestions for Japanese pronunciation education overseas, teachers should provide pronunciation feedback to learners so that learners can gain insights and strengthen their understanding of Japanese pronunciation by consciously listening to Japanese pronunciation of others in online resources.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this presentation is to identify what type of speech used by native speakers is difficult for non-native speakers to understand, based on a listening comprehension survey of non-native speakers, from the perspectives of: pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.

Paper long abstract:

In order for native speakers of Japanese to live together (symbiotically) with non-native speakers of Japanese using Japanese, native speakers need to speak in Japanese that is easy for non-native speakers to understand. In order for native speakers to speak in a way that is easy to understand, they must become conscious of what kind of speech is difficult to understand.

The purpose of this presentation is to identify what type of speech used by native speakers is difficult for non-native speakers to understand, based on a listening comprehension survey of non-native speakers. This was conducted with 50 non-native speakers studying Japanese in England, Germany, France, and Spain as collaborators. The survey method consisted in having the collaborators engage in a conversation with a native speaker, then watch a video recording of the dialogue, and subsequently speak in their own native language about what they understood the native speaker had said.

The result of the survey analysis shows that what can be difficult for many non-native speakers to understand can be summarized according to the following four perspectives: pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.

Pronunciation: Not letting the pitch at the end of a question sentence rise very much, lowering the volume of the voice at the end of the sentence, etc.

Vocabulary: Use of less common Sino-Japanese words such as "sindoo" (vibration), homonym pairs such as "igai" (unexpected/except), etc.

Grammar: Use of the contracted form such as “sinakutya” (I’ve got to do), using a noun modifying clause such as “watasi ga koko de haitteru ookesutora no hitotati” (the people in the orchestra I am in here), etc.

Discourse: Referring to something that came up much earlier in the utterance with an indicative such as "sonna"(such), changing the subject in the middle of an utterance, etc.

Paper short abstract:

In this work, the particles ne, yo and yone and their uses are investigated in context, as one of the demanding resources to be mastered by Japanese as Foreign Language (JFL) learners.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese language presents some features that are deeply rooted in the society in which it originated. A non-native speaker (NNS) could find it difficult to acquire some specific linguistic structures that are inborn with being native, such as the sentence-final particles ne, yo and yone.

Redefined as interactional particles in Maynard (1993) and later in Morita (2005), these are prominent elements in Japanese everyday communication. Ne, yo and yone are acquired early by Japanese children: a two-year old child can already use them efficiently in their different functions. However, for JFL learners their acquisition is often problematic. The usage of the particles ne, yo and yone in NNSs of Japanese will be the focus of the talk. More precisely, the study involves five Italian learners of Japanese owning an intermediate to advanced proficiency level, who have been recorded while talking to their Japanese native speaker (NS) friends. The extracts of speech, in which the interactional particles appear, are analyzed while observing the information involved in the utterance and their position between the interactants.

The functions found differ in every conversation as not every learner used identical ones. Ne is the most used among the three particles considered. Yo, and yone appear to be used less: only two learners out of five use them, limitedly in functions and number of times. Nevertheless, it can be outlined a general tendency to use the particle ne in showing agreement to others more than other functions. In addition, ne is often found linked to fixed sentences, like sōne, sōdane and sōdesune. One of the five Italians uses ne also when the conditions to use yone were fulfilled, and one of the NNSs has the tendency to use ne in excess.

Based on the results, it can be hypothesized that the responsibility of an effective acquisition of the interactional particles lies in the learners' subjectivity.