Development of perception of second language Japanese geminates: Role of duration, sonority, and segmentation strategy

This study explored the second language perceptual accuracy of Japanese geminates (moraic units) by English-speaking learners at three proficiency levels: beginner (28), low–intermediate (42), and advanced (15). Stimuli included singleton and geminate /t/, /k/, /s/ followed by /a/ or /u/ produced by a native speaker in isolated words and carrier sentences. Results of a forced-choice identification task revealed a significant complex interaction involving all factors. Simple effects tests indicated scores for geminate /s/ followed by /u/ in carrier sentences were significantly lower across proficiency levels. The singleton-geminate contrast for /t, k/ was significant for beginning learners, marginal for low– intermediate, and nonsignificant for advanced. Duration differences did not account for all findings. Greater consonant–vowel sonority difference facilitated perception, enhancing mora boundaries for speech segmentation. One of the basic challenges in second language (L2) speech is the perception of nonnative contrasts. Among temporal phenomena, cross-language differences in the duration parameters of voice onset time (VOT) have been extensively studied in perception and production (e.g., Flege, 1991; Flege & Eefting, 1988; Flege, Schirru, & MacKay, 2003; McClaskey, Pisoni, & Carrell, 1983). Another challenge, also characterized as an issue of duration (e.g., Hayes, 2002), is the perception of geminates in Japanese. In that language, singleton consonants contrast with their longer geminate counterparts. Accurate perception and production of geminates are important in Japanese, and particularly difficult for L2 learners for whom segment duration is not a contrastive feature in their first language (L11; Han, 1992). The question arises as to whether there are contextual factors © Cambridge University Press 2009 0142-7164/10 $15.00 Applied Psycholinguistics 31:1 82 Hardison & Motohashi Saigo: Perception of L2 Japanese geminates