Japanese-accented English vowels: a perception study

Abstract

This study attempts to determine whether native English listeners are capable of detecting a foreign accent in isolated monosyllabic English words. A group of native English listeners were asked to identify the native talker in a forced-choice paired comparison task. Pairs of identical words produced by Australian and Japanese talkers were presented to listeners such that the Japanese productions of vowels were matched on F1, F2 at the temporal midpoint and duration as closely as possible to those produced by the native English talkers. Listeners were able to differentiate the two talker groups at better than chance levels regardless of the matched vowels. Their responses depended to a certain extent on both the vowel type and talker. These results suggest that apart from a combination of F1, F2 and duration of vowels there remain some unexplained cues, enabling native listeners to distinguish native from non-native talkers.