How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners
Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
メタデータ

言語: English
出版者:
公開日: 2023-01-16
キーワード (Ja):
キーワード (En): syllable structure, phonologicalawareness, syllable-counting task, pronunciation,
intelligibility
作成者: TAKAYAMA, Yoshiki
メールアドレス:所属:

URL

http://hdl.handle.net/2309/00174496

How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners
Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
TAKAYAMA Yoshiki ＊the intelligibility of their English pronunciation. For example,

1. Introduction
It is well-known that Japanese learners of English tend to

the word volume, a two-syllable word with the first syllable

insert an unnecessary vowel after every consonant other than /n/stressed, is represented as ●。while the rhythmic pattern ofunless it comes before a vowel (Walker, 2010). This epenthesis

the word illustrator, which has four syllables with the primaryof a vowel frequently observed among Japanese EFL learners

stress placed on the first syllable and the secondary stress on theis attributable to differences in the syllable structure between

third syllable, is shown as ●。〇。. Takayama (2021) carried

their native language and English. Japanese uses a CV open-out experiments in which 24 Japanese non-English-major

syllable structure, while English employs a CVC closed-

university students were provided the rhythmic patterns of 24

syllable structure. Therefore, when Japanese EFL learners speak

English words at the time their pronunciation performance wasEnglish, they tend to insert vowels to avoid the closed syllables

recorded. Subsequently, 42 listeners who were not familiarand consonant clusters in English words. However, as Levis

with the Japanese language and culture (29 native speakers of(2018) points out, epenthesis of a vowel can change the syllable

English and 13 non-native speakers of English with various L1

structure of the words and any change to the syllable structure isbackgrounds) were instructed to transcribe the recorded words.

likely to impact intelligibility.

The results indicated that the words pronounced by the students

When we teach English as a global language, it is importantwith the help of “rhythmic pattern” representation enhanced

to set our primary goal of teaching pronunciation to “makeintelligibility whether or not the listeners were native speakers

learners intelligible to the greater number of people possible,of English.

and not just to the native speakers of the language” (Walker,
2010, p.19). If it is the case that Japanese EFL learners’ insertion

1. 1 Perception of English Syllables by Japaneseof unnecessary vowels can threaten intelligibility, we should

EFL Learners

teach them how to avoid epenthetic vowels so that they can

Although it is essential to further investigate how to makeeffectively communicate with both native and non-native

Japanese EFL learners’ speech production more intelligible tospeakers of English.

listeners, it is also of great importance to understand how they

Takayama (2021) proposed that we should utilize a learning

perceive English sounds as a listener. Levis (2018) insists thattechnique he terms “rhythmic pattern,” which is a visual

intelligibility instruction must include perception work for L2

representation of the number of syllables together with thelearners so that they can better negotiate interactions with native

location of stressed syllables using bubbles to help Japanese

speakers. He also points out that L2 speakers are affected by

EFL learners avoid inserting extra vowels and thus enhancetheir L1s in both pronouncing and perceiving.

＊ たかやま よしき 東京学芸大学
キーワード：音節構造／音韻認識／音節数カウントタスク／発音／明瞭性− 69 −

学校教育学研究論集 第 46 号 （2022 年 10 月）
Due to the aforementioned differences in the syllable

syllable words as having fewer syllables.

structure between Japanese and English, it is not easy

Eguchi and Akahane-Yamada (2018) gave the syllable countfor Japanese EFL learners to naturally develop English

task to 17 Japanese ranging in age from 19 to 40, all of whom

phonological awareness. They use a sub-syllabic unit, the mora,

had no experience of living overseas for more than one year.

instead of syllables as the minimal segmentation unit (Ueyama,

Their TOEIC scores ranged from 330 to 940 points. Their

2003). In order to investigate such learners’ perception of theaccuracy rate in counting the number of syllables in 1,008

syllable structure of their target language, several studies have

English words was 39.3%, which is further indication that

required them to actually count the number of syllables ofJapanese listeners have difficulty perceiving English syllables.

English words.

Their study also reported that performance declined as theErickson et al. (1999) used a set of 275 English words that

number of syllables increased, except for one-syllable words.

varied by number of syllables, consonants, and vowels andMonosyllabic words with consonant clusters were found out to

instructed 15 Japanese learners, who had received ordinary

be very difficult in the syllable count task.

English education in Japan for several years, along with five

Shizuka (2014) reported on an attempt to teach Japanesenative speakers of American English, to count the syllables inelementary school children to discern English syllables. Eighteach word and indicate the number by pushing the appropriate

fourth graders received four-day English lessons in which they

key on a keyboard. The result showed that Japanese listeners

were encouraged to pay attention to the number of syllables

correctly identified the number of syllables 57% of the time.

of English words by bending their fingers, stamping their feet,

According to the authors, this indicates that they had difficultyor swaying their body to express the syllable nuclei of eachcounting syllables in English, since the rate for the native

word. The results of syllable-counting tests given before andlisteners was 98%. The study also found that although theafter these intensive lessons indicated that the accuracy of theJapanese listeners’ errors had increased with the number ofchildren’s syllable awareness had significantly improved.
All the previous studies mentioned so far have shownsyllables in the word, one-syllable words were counted lesssimilar results: Japanese learners of English seem to haveaccurately than two-syllable words.
Ishikawa (2009) investigated how Japanese university

difficulty counting the number of syllables in English words

students learning English as a foreign language (hereafter

and the level of difficulty is likely to vary according to thereferred to as “Japanese EFL university students”) recognized

number of syllables in each word. However, none of the former

English syllables and what effect syllable-counting training

studies focused on the relationship between Japanese learners’

had on their ability to count syllables in English words. Twenty

proficiency in English and their ability to accurately recognize

English-major university female students in Kyoto listened to

the number of syllables in English words. The present study is

100 English words that varied in numbers of syllables from one

intended to shed light on such a relationship.

to six, and were told to count the number of syllables in eachword by pressing the appropriate number key on a computer

1. 2 The Present Study

keyboard. Their correct response was 55.2% but it rose to

The purpose of the present study is to examine the perception

77.5% after they received 90-minutes of syllable-countingof English syllables by Japanese EFL learners by using a

training, where each student used a computer in a quiet room

syllable-counting test to explore if there is a relationshipand received feedback using a chime or a beep to show whether

between their English proficiency and their syllable-counting

she had pressed the correct number of syllables in six sets ofability. It was hypothesized that differences in the syllable

40 English words. Ishikawa found that the students tended

structure between their native language and English hindered

to recognize one- and two-syllable words as having more

the accuracy of their recognition of the number of syllables

syllables, while they were likely to identify three- and more

in English words. It was also speculated that higher English− 70 −

How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
proficiency contributed to better performance in counting

students was 632 (SD: 107.2), with a range between 400 andsyllables accurately or vice versa.

905.

In the present study, the following two research questions are
addressed:

2. 2 Materials

RQ1: How accurately can Japanese EFL university students

Audio materials were prepared for the syllable-counting

count the number of syllables in English words

test. They consisted of 38 English words which were eachdepending upon their English proficiency?

read aloud twice in the following order by an American native

RQ2: What kind of phonological characteristics of English
words make it particularly difficult for Japanese EFL

speaker of English who was working full-time at a university inTokyo.

university students to identify the number of syllables

express, electronic, control, equal, lacrosse, photographer,they contain?

slipper, violin, survival, Brazil, bathtub, illustrator,village, separate, tourism, priority, ethnic, lonely,

2. Methodsatellite, advantage, kilਲ਼meter, career, athlete, volleyball,

2.1 Participants

pineapple, healthy, volunteer, average, volume, traveling,

The participants in the present study were 117 Japanese
university students, all of whom were students of the author of

extra, driver, stadium, prodúce, program, president, street,classroom

this study and agreed that their data could be used for it. The

Out of the 38 words, 30 were the same as those used in

students were divided into two groups. One group consisted

Takayama (2014). Since whether Japanese EFL learners canof “68 students of a national university of education in Tokyo

pronounce English words with consonant clusters properly was

who took Methodology in TEFL III as part of the requirements

likely to significantly affect their intelligibility, eight words

to obtain an English teacher’s license at the time of theircontaining consonant clusters were added to the present study

graduation” (hereafter referred to as “ET students”. ET stands

in order to determine if the syllables of those words werefor English Teaching). Seven out of the 68 ET students had had

accurately recognized. The 38 words included one one-syllable

the experience of living in English-speaking countries for moreword, 19 two-syllable words, 13 three-syllable words and fivethan twelve months and learned English as a second language,four-syllable words.

so they were termed ET-ESL. The other 61 ET students, who
had had no such experience, were called ET-EFL. The other

2. 3 Proceduregroup of the 117 participants consisted of 49 students enrolled

Prior to the syllable-counting test, the participants practiced

in a private university in Tokyo. They majored in either science

counting the number of syllables of some Japanese words

or history and all of them were required to take a subject called

such as yama (“mountain”), which has two syllables, underEnglish Reading once a week. We named this group Non-ET

the author’s supervision. They then were asked how manyand their English proficiency was judged by the author to be far

syllables the corresponding English word mountain has. Theylower than that of the ET students.

also practiced counting the number of syllables of English

Both ET-ESL and ET-EFL students took the VELC Test,

words such as taxi, strawberry, and train. All the syllable-

which is one of the English proficiency tests administered incounting practice sessions mentioned above lasted for five

Japan. Its multiple correlation coefficient to TOEIC scores

minutes in total at the start of the students’ English Reading or

is 0.82; thus, it is used to predict examinees’ TOEIC scores

Methodology in TEFL III classes.

(Shizuka & Mochizuki, 2014). The predicted average TOEIC

Subsequently, printed test materials with the bracketed

total score of the seven ET-ESL students was 776 (SD: 134.6),

numbers from (1) to (38) were given to the participants. The

with a range between 590 and 995, while that of the 61 ET-EFL

numbers from 1 to 8 were written next to each bracketed− 71 −

学校教育学研究論集 第 46 号 （2022 年 10 月）
number, and the participants were told to indicate their

their average syllable-counting accuracy rate was 89.33. They

perception of the number of syllables of each of the 38 words

were able to accurately identify the number of syllables in 28

they were going to listen to by circling one of the eightout of 38 words.

numbers. Unlike Ishikawa (2009), who told his 20 participants
to press the appropriate number key on the computer keyboard

Table 1to show the number of syllables, we told our participants toEach Group’s Syllable-Counting Accuracy Ratecircle the appropriate number with a pen because computers

Group

n

M (SD)

95% CI

Min

Max

were not available to all the 117 participants and because we

Non-ET49

52.14 (12.5)[48.55, 55.73]

29

82

ET-EFL61

61.77 (13.17) [58.40, 65.14]

37

87

ET-ESL7

77.14 (12.19) [65.87, 88.41]

61

92

assumed that it may have been difficult for us to make out theirhandwriting.
After confirming that all the participants fully understood theAn unpaired t-test was conducted to find out whether

syllable-counting test, the audio materials were played in their

the average rates of syllable-counting accuracy rate differedclassrooms.

between Non-ET and ET-EFL. The result showed there

At the end of the syllable-counting test, the participants

was a statistically significant difference between the two groups

were told to fill in a questionnaire on their English language(t(108) = 3.90, p < .001, d = 0.75, 95%CI [4.73, 14.52]), whichlearning background, such as when and where they had started

implies that the higher English proficiency group was betterto acquire/learn English as a second/foreign language.

at counting the number of syllables of English words than its
lower counterpart.

2. 4 Data Analysis
The proportion of each participant’s correct responses was

3. 2 Difficult Words in the Syllable-Counting Test forused to measure each group’s “syllable-counting accuracy rate.”

Each GroupWe also examined whether the syllable-counting accuracy

Table 2 shows the top seven most difficult words in therate differed according to the level of English proficiency

syllable-counting test for each group. The three most difficult

by comparing the average between Non-ET and ET-EFL,

words in the syllable-counting test for Non-ET and the firstusing an unpaired t-test. The syllable-counting error rate

to the third most difficult words for ET-EFL were exactly thewas also calculated for each of the 38 words to discern any

same: electronic, priority, and tourism. Counting the number

characteristics of words which made it particularly difficult forof the syllables of electronic was also the most difficult forthe participants to identify their number of syllables.

ET-ESL, although the number of the group member was too
small (n = 7) to be able to make a fair comparison with theother two groups.

3. Results
3. 1 Each Group’s Syllable-Counting Accuracy Rate

In the syllable-counting test, some words were recognized

Table 1 shows each group’s syllable-counting accuracy

to have more syllables than they actually do, while othersrate. The average syllable-counting accuracy rate of ET-EFL

were recognized to have fewer syllables than they actually do.

was higher than that of Non-ET. Among the three groups, theTable 3 shows a list of words where the participants of Non-average syllable-counting accuracy rate of ET-ESL was the

ET tended to count more than the actual number of syllables,

highest, although the number of this groups’ members was

and Table 4 shows the list for ET-EFL. In the tables, the columnmuch too small (n = 7) to afford a fair comparison with the“Sum of wrongly added syllable numbers” shows the total

other two groups. Three university students out of the sevensyllable numbers which participants incorrectly added to each

ET-ESL members had lived in English-speaking countries forEnglish word in the syllable-counting test. As shown in Table

more than three years before they entered primary school, and3, the one-syllable word street, for example, was given an− 72 −

How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
additional 21 syllable numbers in total by the Non-ET students.

“ ストリート(storiito)” in Japanese, which has five moras.

The English word street has a corresponding Katakana word
Table 2The Top Seven Most Difficult Words in Syllable-Counting Test for Each Group
Non-ET

ET-EFL

ET-ESL

Rank

word

AR

Rank

word

AR

Rank

word

AR

1

electronic

18

1electronic

8

1electronic

14

1priority

18

2

tourism

20

2

traveling29

1

tourism18

3priority

23

3

average43

4illustrator

20

3violin23

3

career43

5

average22

5

separate

25

3

priority

43

5

village22

6average30

3separate

43

7

travelling24

6kilometer30

3violin43Note. AR = accuracy rate (%)
Table 3
Words the Non-ET Tended to Recognize as Having More Syllables than they Actually Do
Word

No. ofsyllables

street1

careerKatakana

No. ofmorasn (ER)

Sum of wrongly added
syllable numbers

ストリートsutoriito

5

21 (43)21

2

キャリア kyaria3

27 (55)19

bathtub

2

バスタブ basutabu

4

17 (35)17slipper2

スリッパ surippa

4

27 (55)15

village2

ビレッジ birejji

4

38 (78)15

ethnic2

エスニック esunikku

5

18 (37)14

program2

プログラムpuroguramu5

15 (31)13Note. n = No. of participants who made errors
ER = error rate (%)

Table 4
Words the ET-EFL Tended to Recognize as Having More Syllables than they Actually Do
Word

No. ofsyllables

street1

Katakana

No. ofmoras
5ストリートsutoriiton (ER)
19 (31)

Sum of wrongly added
syllable numbers
19

career2

キャリア kyaria3

23 (38)18

program2

プログラムpuroguramu

5

12 (20)12slipper2

スリッパ surippa

4

24 (39)11

ethnic2

エスニック esunikku

5

13 (21)

10

athlete2

アスリート asuriito

5

12 (20)9village2

ビレッジ birejji

4

33 (54)8Note. n = No. of participants who made errors
ER = error rate (%)− 73 −

学校教育学研究論集 第 46 号 （2022 年 10 月）
all five of the four-syllable words used in the present study
All the words listed in both Tables 3 and 4 are either one-were recognized to have fewer syllables than they actually dosyllable or two-syllable words and quite a few of themby both Non-ET and ET-EFL. As for street, which was the(i.e. street, bathtub, slipper, ethnic, program, athlete) have

only monosyllabic word, both Non-ET and ET-EFL tended toconsonant clusters, which suggests that Japanese EFL learners

misrecognize it as having more than one syllable. Regarding

tend to count such monosyllabic or disyllabic words withthe 19 two-syllable words, six words (32%) were recognizedconsonant clusters as having more syllables than they actuallyto have fewer syllables and 13 words (68%) were judged todo.

have more syllables by Non-ET, while eight words (42%)

Table 5 shows a list of words where the participants of Non-

were recognized to have fewer syllables and 11 words (58%)

ET tended to count fewer than the actual number of syllables,

were perceived to have more syllables than they actually do by

and Table 6 shows the list for ET-EFL. It is noteworthy that

ET-EFL. What we have seen so far seems to indicate that the

all the misrecognized words listed here have more than two

more syllables certain words have, the more difficult it becomessyllables.

for Japanese EFL students to count the number of syllables

It was also found that all 13 of the three-syllable words andaccurately and that students tend to misrecognize words with

Table 5
Words the Non-ET Tended to Recognize as Having Fewer Syllables than they Actually Do
Word

No. ofsyllables

No. ofKatakanamorasn (ER)

Sum of wrongly added
syllable numbers

electronic

4

エレクトロニック erekutoronikku

8

40 (82)39

tourism3

ツーリズム tsuurizumu

5

40 (82)38

illustrator

4

イラストレーター irasutoreetaa8

39 (80)37

priority4

プライオリティ puraioritei

6

40 (82)36

traveling3

トラベリング toraberingu

6

37 (76)35

kilometer

4

キロメートル kiromeetoru

6

34 (69)34

violin3

バイオリン baiorin

5

36 (74)34

average3

アベレージ abereeji

5

38 (78)34

Note. n = No. of participants who made errors
ER = error rate (%)
Table 6
Words the ET-EFL Tended to Recognize as Having Fewer Syllables than they Actually Do
Word

No. ofsyllables

No. ofKatakanamorasn (ER)

Sum of wrongly added
syllable numbers

electronic

4

エレクトロニック erekutoronikku

8

56 (92)56

tourism3

ツーリズム tsuurizumu

5

49 (80)49

priority4

プライオリティ puraioritei

6

47 (77)46

violin3

バイオリン baiorin

5

47 (77)46

kilometer

4

キロメートル kiromeetoru

6

43 (71)43

separate

3

セパレート separeeto5

46 (75)42

average3

アベレージ abereeji

5

43 (71)37

Note. n = No. of participants who made errors
ER = error rate (%)− 74 −

How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
many syllables to have fewer than they really do. In contrast,

English words full of closed syllables.

certain words with smaller numbers of syllables tend to be

The result of the psychological experiments conducted

recognized as having more syllables than they actually do.

by Dupoux et al. (1999) suggest Japanese listeners perceive

Since we had only one one-syllable word and only five four-“illusionary” vowels when they are presented with consonant

syllable words in our experiment, further research on this matter

sequences which violate phonotactic constraints in their firstis needed to clarify the aforementioned tendency.

language. It is well-known that Japanese learners of English
tend to add a vowel to every consonant other than /n/ if it is not

4. Discussion

preceding a vowel (Walker, 2010; Derwing & Munro, 2015).

4. 1 Japanese EFL University Students Identification

Dupoux et al. (1999) claimed that this vowel epenthesis wasof the Number of Syllables

likely to occur at the perceptual level as well, and this may

As for RQ1 “How accurately can Japanese EFL university

explain why the Japanese university students in our study had

students count the number of syllables in English words

trouble accurately counting the number of syllables of English

depending upon their English proficiency?”, the syllable-

words containing consonant clusters. They tended to count

counting accuracy rate of the Japanese university studentsmonosyllabic or disyllabic words with consonant clusters as

whose major was not English was 52.1%. As for those students

having more syllables than they actually do. A very similar

planning to get an English teacher’s license at the time oftendency was also reported in Ishikawa (2009).

their graduation, the accuracy rate was 61.8%. Japanese EFL
learners’ syllable-counting ability shown in the present study

4. 2 Relationship between Syllable-Counting Ability

is quite similar to two of the previous studies reported: 57% in

and English Proficiency

Erickson et al. (1999) and 55.2% in Ishikawa (2009). Eguchi

As we have seen, three students in ET-ESL, who had

and Akahane-Yamada (2018) reported a much lower syllable-

experienced living in English-speaking countries for morecounting accuracy rate: 39.3%. The present study and thethan three years before they entered primary school and whose

previous studies indicate that it is a far more challenging task

predicted average TOEIC total scores by VELC test results wasfor Japanese EFL learners to accurately count the number of805, showed the highest average accuracy rate in the syllable-

syllables of English words than both native speakers of English

counting test. The rate was 89.33 and these students were able toand those who acquired English as a second language in theircorrectly identify the number of syllables in 28 out of 38 words.

early childhood. However, it has not been clarified how highThis result seemed remarkable because their accuracy rateof an accuracy rate EFL learners need to obtain in order toalmost reached 90%, the rate that was observed by American

contribute to their pronunciation intelligibility to L1 and other6-year-old children when they counted syllables in English

L2 speakers.

words (Liberman, Shankweiler, Fischer, & Carter, 1974). The

One of the possible reasons for the difficulty Japanese EFL

rest of the ET-ESL members and ET-EFL, whose predicted

learners face in counting the number of syllables accurately

average TOEIC scores were 755 and 632 respectively, followed

lies in the syllable structure of their mother tongue: Japanese

them scoring 68.0 and 61.77 on average in the syllable-counting

syllables are highly constrained, allowing only three types,

test. The Non-ET, whose English proficiency was judged byi.e., V, CV, and CVC, while English permits a wide variety of

the author to be far behind the former three groups even thoughsyllable types such as CV, CVC, CCVCC, and CCCVCCCC

their predicted TOEIC scores were not available, showed the(Ishikawa, 2009). Since more than 90 percent of Japanese

lowest accuracy rate of 52.14. It is therefore presumed thatsyllables are open syllables compared to only about 40 percent

English proficiency is correlated with syllable-counting ability.

of their English counterparts (Kubozono, 1995), it is assumed

We are not sure at this stage whether higher English proficiency

to be difficult for Japanese learners to accurately recognize

leads to better syllable-counting ability or the other way around,− 75 −

学校教育学研究論集 第 46 号 （2022 年 10 月）
i.e., whether better syllable-counting ability leads to higher

the above-mentioned tendency of counting more or less than the

English proficiency.

exact number of syllables of each word, it is necessary to rigidly

Since we had a much smaller number of participants incontrol the components of the target words set to be used in

ET-ESL, we also have to be cautious about interpreting thefuture experiments, and to prepare equal numbers of words withdata obtained from this group. In addition, considering that

equal numbers of syllables and types of syllable sequences forthe first subgroup of ET-ESL showed an outstanding accuracy

the set.

rate and that even the ET-EFL students, who were thought tohave studied English very hard as their major subject, were far

5. Conclusion

behind the above-mentioned subgroup, there might be a specific

The purpose of our study was to examine how accurately

period of time in which we can acquire the ability to recognize

Japanese university students can count the number of syllables

syllables of a second or foreign language.

in English words. The results indicate that their syllable-

Ishikawa (2009) claims that Japanese learners of English

counting accuracy rate ranges from 52.14 to 61.77 percent.

can improve their ability to recognize and produce English

This result, together with the ones obtained in previous studies

syllables through syllable-counting training, but it is necessary

with very similar accuracy rates, shows that it is very difficult

to discover whether such training enables us to reach the highfor Japanese EFL students to accurately recognize the syllables

accuracy rate of syllable-counting demonstrated by the ET-ESL

of English words. On the other hand, an outstanding accuracy

subgroup members who spent a protracted period of their earlyrate of 89.33 percent was obtained from the group of Japanesechildhood in an ESL environment.

students who had spent more than three years in Englishspeaking countries since preschool. Our results also suggest

4. 3

that Japanese EFL students with higher English proficiency are

Phonological Characteristics of Words andlikely to be better at counting the syllables of English words, or

Difficulty of Syllable-Counting Tasks
As for RQ2 “What kind of phonological characteristics ofperhaps the other way around, i.e., that Japanese EFL students

English words make it particularly difficult for Japanese EFL

who are better at counting the syllables of English words

university students to identify the number of syllables they

are likely to be proficient English speakers. It is necessary

contain?”, the students faced difficulty in accurately counting

to discover whether we can improve the ability to perceive

one-syllable words or two-syllable words with consonant

English syllables through syllable-counting training. Besides,

clusters. Our findings also suggest that the more syllables

it is necessary to clarify through further studies how high of acertain words have, the more difficult it becomes for Japanesesyllable-counting accuracy rate Japanese EFL learners need to

EFL students to count the number of syllables accurately andobtain, together with the extent to which their L2 pronunciationthat students tend to misrecognize words with many syllables tois intelligible to listeners with various linguistic backgrounds.

have fewer than they really do. In contrast, certain words with

It was found that the more syllables certain words have, thesmaller numbers of syllables tend to be recognized as having

more difficult it becomes for Japanese EFL learners to countmore syllables than they actually do. The tendencies mentioned

the number of their syllables accurately and that the learners

above are consistent with the findings reported in the previous

tend to misrecognize words with many syllables to have fewerstudies (Ishikawa, 2009; Eguchi and Akahane-Yamada, 2018).

than they actually do. It was also found that it is very difficult

The limitation of the present study lies in the selection of

for Japanese EFL learners to correctly count the syllables of

the target words, or the 38 words used in the experiment. Most

English words with consonant clusters. The possibility of theof the words were used in another study we conducted for

effect of perceiving “illusionary” vowels on this difficulty

intelligibility judgment made by native and non-native speakers

was mentioned, but further research is needed to clarify howof English (Takayama, 2014). In order to pin down the cause ofJapanese learners of English actually perceive English words− 76 −

How Accurately Can Japanese EFL Learners Count the Number of Syllables in English Words?
with consonant clusters.
As Levis (2018) emphasizes, Japanese learners of English

Ishikawa, K. (2009). Recognition and Production of English

must learn to pronounce syllable structures that do not fit

Syllables by Speakers of English and Japanese. Kurosio

the syllabic structure of their native language because the

Publishers.

pronunciation of syllables is a crucial aspect of intelligibility.
In order to make themselves intelligible to the greatest possible

Kubozono, H. (1995). Gokeisei to Oninkozo [Word Formation
and Phonological Structure]. Kurosio Publishers.

number of people, they must pay more attention to English

Levis, J.M. (2018). Intelligibility, Oral Communication, and thesyllable structures and be able to recognize them as accurately

Teaching of Pronunciation. Cambridge University Press.

as possible. Levis (2018) also points out that intelligibility

Liberman, I.Y., Shankweiler, D., Fischer, F.W., & Carter, B.

instruction must include perception work for L2 learners so(1974). Explicit syllable and phoneme segmentation in thethat they can better negotiate interactions with native speakers.

young child. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,

With inaccurate perception of English syllables, especially with18, 201-212.

Japanese EFL listeners’ tendency to perceive illusionary vowels

Shizuka, T. (2014). An attempt to teach elementary school

within consonant clusters (Dupoux et al., 1999), it would be

students to “feel” English syllables, ARELE, 25, 331-346.

difficult for them to produce English words with the proper

Shizuka, T., & Mochizuki, M. (2014). VELC Test for testing
competency: Verification of reliability and validity:syllable structure of the target language.

Retrieved October 8, 2021, from http://www.velctest.org/
contact/VelcTest-for-TestingCompetency.pdf

Acknowledgements
Part of this research was presented at JASELE 2019 held in

Takayama, Y. (2014). Eitango no rizumu pataan teiji ga

Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, on August 18, 2019. This researchhatsuon no tsuujiyasusa ni ataeru eikyo [The effect ofis supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. JP18K00822.

the presentation of rhythmic patterns of English words to
EFL learners on the intelligibility of their pronunciation].

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