2020 Volume 24 Pages 36-48
In this paper, we illustrate the difficulties of teaching Japanese pitch accent through a detailed questionnaire survey of Japanese language teachers and propose improvements to phonetic education. Accent is important in communication for Japanese language learners, and the need is increasing due to changes in social circumstances. The questionnaire survey conducted in this study suggested that Japanese language teachers’ phonetic education should emphasize improvement of the ability to assess the pitch of one’s own voice and understanding of the difference between model and actual pronunciation.