Acquisition of Segments in Japanese by Foreign Learners(L2 Acquisitioin,<Feature Articles>Phonetics and Phonology of Language Acquisition)

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are: 1) to examine the historical development of second language research in light of various theoretical hypotheses which have been posited to explain learners' errors, 2) to introduce some of the preceding phonetic research focusing on the segmental level within the framework of 'interlanguage', 3) to review the recent literature on phonetic research in the field of second language acquisition of Japanese segments, and 4) to discuss some of the problems associated with the segmental level. It is hoped that this study may help with the future development of teaching Japanese as a foreign language.