Temporal Features and Rate Perception of Japanese Speech by Native Korean Speakers Learning Japanese

Abstract

I conducted two experiments to observe how Japanese language learners control their speech rate, and how native speakers perceive the tempo of this speech when they hear it.

In the first experiment, eight Korean native speakers learning Japanese and five Japanese native speakers read a short text using three different speech rates, and I recorded and analyzed them.

In the second, I recorded spontaneous speeches spoken by 34 Korean native speakers in Japanese; 22 Japanese native speakers listened to these speeches and judged the speed of each of them.

The results were as follows:

(1) The Japanese learners as well as the native speakers could control their speech rate.

(2) The learners spoke more slowly than the native speakers.

(3) While the native speakers had internal systems concerning when to insert pauses and how long they should be, the learners did not.

(4) The learners' speeches were more frequently judged to be fast.

(5) The native speakers relied upon utterance parts when determining the rate of fast speeches, and used pause length and frequency to aid their assessment of slow speeches. This is in line with previous studies of Japanese native speakers judging the speech of other native speakers.