Prosodic Characteristics of Japanese EFL Learners' Oral Reading Comparison between good and poor readers

抄録

Prosody refers to the stress, timing, and intonation of an utterance, the acoustic correlates of which are pitch, amplitude, and duration (Nagel et al., 1996). Speech production of a foreign language is subject to the influence of its speaker's mother tongue. Especially, prosodic factors are more liable to be interfered with by the mother tongue. For example, Sugito (1996) suggests that not only in Japanese but also in English, the most crucial factor concerning prosody is the dynamic change in pitch rather than the change in intensity. This study tries to examine prosodic characteristics between good and poor readers using an oral reading task. Among various prosodic variables, this study focuses on fundamental frequency, reading speed, and pause consistency. The data obtained in this study show some differences as to the prosodic variables between good and poor readers. Based upon the results, pronunciation teaching which focuses on prosody in Japanese EFL classrooms is reconsidered.