Abstract
This study investigated perceptual tendencies of long/short vowels of native speakers of Finnish, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. An identification test using two syllable words with various vowel lengths in the word-initial or the word-final positions was carried out. Finnish and Japanese speakers showed similar perceptual tendencies. Chinese and Korean speakers, regardless of their Japanese proficiency, showed that especially in the word-final position, they did not distinguish vowel length contrast clearly. These results suggest that characteristics of learners' first language relates to identification of Japanese long and short vowels, and in order to reduce the confusion of long and short vowels, learners need to be trained continually, considering vowel position in a word.
