Pronunciation Workshop September/October 2018

Workshop Title:  The Phonological Differences Between Japanese and English

Differences in vowels:

  • There are many more vowels in English than in Japanese (15 and 5, respectively).

  • Lax and tense vowels:  This refers to how much muscle tension or movement in the mouth is used to produce the vowels.

    • Vowels produced with extra muscle tension are called tense, like /i/ “eee” as in “eat”.

      • There are certain tense/lax vowel pairs that don’t exist in Japanese, like “/i/ and /ɪ/.

Differences in consonants:

  • There are more consonants in English as well.

Helping students cope with differences with vowels and consonants:

  • Use Underhill's phonetic chart to help students make unfamiliar vowel and consonant sounds. Sounds are strategically placed next to similar sounds on the chart, so if a student can pronounce one sound, you can guide them to pronounce a similar one (progression).

  • The vowel sound on the left /i:/, pronounced as “eee”, has the following mouth position: lips back/tongue forward.

  • The vowel sound on the right /u:/, pronounced as “ooo”, has the following mouth position: lips forward/tongue back.

  • The chart follows a pattern:

    • Left to right/right to left: lips moving forward or back, tongue moving forward or back.

    • Up and down: jaw moving up and down.

  • Use an interactive chart to help students progress from one sound to another.

 

Syllables:

  • English allows for more syllable types. English words can end with a consonant for example, which is not very common in Japanese. English allows for consonant clusters at the beginning and ending of a word.
  • Japanese words mainly end in vowels. Therefore, students will sometimes add a vowel after a consonant.
  • Use Yumi's tip to help students pronounce a word correctly by focusing on the last syllable first.
    • For example, if a student is having trouble with the word "basically", you start with the last syllable, "klee" "si klee" then "BAY si klee".

Rhythm (stress-timed vs. syllable-timed):

  • English is a stress-timed language, while Japanese is a syllable-timed language.
  • The rhythm of English doesn’t depend on the number of syllables. It would take the same amount of time to say the following in English:
    • Birds / eat / worms.
    • The birds / will have eaten / the worms.
  • To say the equivalent in Japanese, it will take a different amount of time. The amount of time it takes to say a sentence in Japanese depends on the number of syllables.

Stress and pitch:

  • In Japanese, they do add stress, but in a different way. In English, stressed syllables are marked by making vowels longer and louder (“baNAna”). In Japanese they add stress by using a higher pitch.
  • In English, when we add stress to a certain syllable, the other syllables become less pronounced. Stressed vs. Unstressed. The unstress is just as important as the stress.
    • Use Matthew's tip to help students remember stress:
      • Ask the student to say the word five times with exaggerated stress. Then ask the student to say the word with "flat" or not exaggerated stress the sixth time.
    • Use Craig's tip to help students remember stress:
      • Tap on the desk to show stress in another way (not just speaking). Some students will learn by hearing a tapping rhythm. 

Intonation:

  • There is less pitch variation in Japanese. There is a wider range in English. So, when a Japanese speaker drops their tone at the end of a statement, it’s not as low as how we would do so in English and therefore, it may sound like a question or that they have not finished speaking yet.

The importance of listening and giving feedback:

  • It is important to help the student hear the difference between two different, but similar words (minimal pairs). Listening is the first step as the student will not be able to pronounce two words differently if they can't even hear the difference between them, like with "ear" and "year."
  • Give students feedback when testing if they can differentiate between minimal pairs. That way students can develop an ear for what it is and what it isn't.

Recording:

  • Use Bret's tip about recording. Encourage students to record themselves so they can hear what they really sound like. It is likely that students don't really know how they actually sound. Nadia adds on to this tip that the student could share the recording of themselves in the lesson so teachers can give feedback on the student's mistakes or what they could improve.

Sources:

  • "The Phonemes of Japanese and English - A Contrastive Analysis and Study" by Barry Kavanagh
  • "Phonological Differences between Japanese and English:  Several Potentially Problematic Areas of Pronunciation for Japanese ESL/EFL Learners" by Kota Ohata