Onset-coda asymmetry in second-language syllable perception by Japanese teachers of English

The paper reports the results of an experiment in second-language speech that provides further evidence for the view that syllable onsets and codas are asymmetric, and for the view that English proficiency affects Japanese listeners’ speech perception performance. When two groups of Japanese listeners (Japanese college students and Japanese teachers of English) were asked to count syllables in spoken English words and nonwords, the performances of both groups declined as the number of consonants in the target item increased, but onsets led to a more drastic decline in performance than did codas. The results of Japanese teachers of English further revealed that upper-level English teachers performed the task significantly better than Japanese college students whereas lower-level English teachers did significantly worse. Among the three groups of participants, lower-level English teachers were the most strongly affected by phonological constraints on syllables in Japanese.