日本人が目指すべき発音とは―中学生を対象としたアンケート結果から

抄録

There has long been a discussion over which English accents should be adopted as a model of learning for Japanese people. These days, just as the notions of World Englishes or English as an International Language, English is thought to belong not only to native speakers (NS) but to non-native speakers. In fact, some studies suggest that it is crucial to create a criteria or a guideline of teaching and learning pronunciation that is suitable for such learners. Basically, this supports the idea that Japanese learners do not have to struggle with the mastery of NS’ English and have only to aim at mastering pronunciation to the extent to which their English is understandable enough. However, this debate ought to be conducted taking actual learners’ opinions into more consideration. Therefore, a questionnaire was administered to 157 second year junior high school students. In addition, it is necessary to look at the advantages of learning NS’ pronunciation. The present study takes a stance that Japanese people should follow NS’s English to learn pronunciation. This position is upheld by three points, including doubts about having international English as a main goal for learners and the advantages of learning NS’s pronunciation, and the results of the questionnaire survey.