The Correlation between the Usage of Phonetic Learning Strategies and the Acquisition of Japanese Pronunciation under JFL Environment: An Analysis of Japanese Learners Studying at Chinese Universities

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the correlation between the usage of phonetic learning strategies and the acquisition of Japanese pronunciation in a Chinese JFL environment. One hundred and twenty three Chinese undergraduate students majoring in Japanese who take a proper phonetic education are required to complete a questionnaire concerning the learning strategies of phonetics, and read aloud a short passage in Japanese. Samples of each learner's speech is recorded and analyzed in relation to the data from the questionnaire. Three major findings are suggested by the research. (1) The factor analysis shows that the following strategies, namely “practice by vocalization type”, “human resources type”, “media use type”, “mouth conscious type” and “self-monitor type” are confirmed to be used by learners. (2) The more time students spend learning Japanese, the better they will acquire the accent and mora length. (3) It is suggested in correlation studies and regression analysis that phonetic proficiency is less likely to be predicted through the use of phonetic learning strategies. In view of all the findings, targeted phonetic education is more important than different learning strategies.