抄録
As far as the goal of pronunciation teaching to L2 learners is concerned, there are two kinds of approaches. One approach is to fix the goal at a near-native level, and the other approach is to improve foreign accents so that L2 learners' pronunciations can at least be understood by native speakers without too much difficulty. This paper aims at the latter approach, and discusses how Japanese learners can improve the intelligibility of their English vowels /Λ, 〓, I, i:, ε/ with minimum effort. Implications are found from the investigation of the relationship between the spectral properties of Japanese learners' productions and the native speakers' responses. In addition to this pedagogical issue, we deal with the phenomenon of developmental process which was observed in one of the experiments.
