Vowel length perception in Japanese by Filipino learners <Article>

This study investigated the influence of pitch accent on vowel length perception in Japanese by Filipino learners. An auditory experiment was carried out to novice learners to examine the effect of pitch type and syllable position in identifying long and short vowels in Japanese. Results showed that it is easy for learners to identify long vowels that are located in syllables with the accent nucleus. This suggests that learners utilize pitch movement in perceiving long vowels. However, when learners perceive long vowels and cannot identify its accurate position, they tend to perceive the long vowels to be in the word initial position especially when the word initial is accented. Results also showed that short vowels in the penultimate position are likely to be perceived as long vowels when accented. Learners' first language accent seems to affect how learners perceive vowel length in Japanese so shifting learners' attention on perceiving correct pitch accent through instruction may play an important role in the correct production and perception of vowel length