Abstract
This study examined how Japanese graduate and undergraduate students perceive and segment English sounds (consonants and vowels) with in words. Sixty students were provided with a memory span task in which they repeated aloud English words. There were words with five types of phonological structures: CV, CVC, CVCV, CVCC, and CVCVC. The followings were the main results: (1) Memory spans for CVC and CVCV which were on the same level, were longer than those for CVCC and CVCVC; (2) The duration of spoken words by students showing a segmentation pattern of mora tended to be lengthier than those of the original sounds, or those by students showing mixed segmentation patterns of mora and syllables; and (3) Students obtaining higher scores on the TOEIC showed more segmentation patterns of syllables. These results suggest that the Japanese rhythm of mora had an enduring influence on perception and segmentation of English sounds, among Japanese students who had studied English more than six years. The acquisition of segmentation patterns of syllables may be one key to improvement of English ability.
