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Japanese Learners' Awareness of Pitch Accent And its Relationship to Their Oral Skills and Study Habits

Iimori, Yui
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406152117

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
Pitch accent, a prosodic feature of the Japanese language, can be a challenging feature for learners to acquire. Many learners who are not familiar with pitch accent frequently make pitch accent errors. This study investigates whether pitch accent awareness training can increase the awareness of beginning-level Japanese language learners and examines whether there is any relationship among awareness, oral skills, and study habits. The training involved reviews and exercises involving Japanese mora, pitch accent and intonation, focusing mainly on pitch accent. The exercises involved counting the number of mora, marking utterances with accurate accent and intonation symbols, and practicing listening and speaking utterances with accurate mora, pitch accent, and intonation. The training also involved study sessions of recording practice using an online program that allowed participants in the intervention training to listen to the audio of model speech, record their own performance, and compare the two. Both the experimental group, which received the intervention, and the control group, which did not receive the intervention, were asked to complete a survey form three times (once immediately before, once immediately after, and once a month after the intervention). The survey was conducted in hopes of investigating how the Japanese learners prepare for class, their focus and attention on pitch accent and intonation, whether they could detect their own errors, and the effect of these factors on their self-reported speaking proficiency in Japanese. According to the results of the present study, it seems that that pitch accent awareness training helps Japanese language learners to pay more attention to pitch accent, leads to an ability to identify and correct their own pitch accent errors more frequently, and makes for better oral production skills. The results suggest that an emphasis on pitch accent in the coursework also pushes students without extracurricular pitch accent awareness training to pay attention to pitch accent. Finally, the results also suggest that the experimental group had significantly better oral production skills in their post-training assessment than in their pre-training assessment before training began. Their perception skills also slightly improved, but their improvement was not significant. Both the experimental group and the control group significantly increased in self-evaluated speaking proficiency in Japanese over time. The results suggest that there may be a relationship between awareness and the study behaviors, but the data was not sufficient to conclude this. It would be most effective for Japanese language programs to emphasize the importance of pitch accent as well as to offer training outside the classroom.
Mari Noda (Advisor)
Charles Quinn (Committee Member)
132 p.
Pedagogy
Japanese language; pitch accent; awareness; oral skills; study habits

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Iimori, Y. (2014). Japanese Learners' Awareness of Pitch Accent And its Relationship to Their Oral Skills and Study Habits [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406152117

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Iimori, Yui. Japanese Learners' Awareness of Pitch Accent And its Relationship to Their Oral Skills and Study Habits. 2014. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406152117.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Iimori, Yui. "Japanese Learners' Awareness of Pitch Accent And its Relationship to Their Oral Skills and Study Habits." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1406152117

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1406152117
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.