日本大学歯学部紀要 42，9‑16，2014

A Contrastive Analysis of English and Japanese Prosody
Daisuke Akagi
Abstract
The influence of language transfer from L1 to L2 cannot be underestimated when considering the issue of how to teach speaking skills more effectively. Whereas prosodic factors asa whole can be complex, this paper focuses on the major factors of rhythm, accent, andpronunciation to clarify the differences between Japanese and English. One speech exercise
was conducted with a first‑year university English majors class. The classroom had CALL
facilities so the students were asked to record their voices with the sentence before and aftersome directions and exercise activities. The results showed noticeable differences for thevolume and the pitch range to underscore the importance of prosody education for speaking
activities.
Key words: prosody, speaking skills, listening skills, classroom activities

１. Introduction
When we acquire a second language(L2)or foreign language(FL),the influence of the mothertongue (L1)is inevitable. Rasier and Hiligsmann (2007)stated that phonology is “perhaps the
only area where the influence of the learnerʼs L1 on his/her L2 linguistic habits has never reallybeen called into question”(p.43). This influence can help FL acquisition,and at the same time
it may have negative effect. In this paper, the elements of L1 and L2 prosodic features are
examined and ideas for effective teaching are discussed with data from some class activities.

２. L1 phonological influence on L2
2.1. Positive and negative transfer
For Japanese learners of a second language, the influence of L1 is strong especially foruniversity students who have grown up in an exclusively L1 environment. To make thesituation worse, it seems to work as negative transfer resulting in little or no confidence in
speaking.In terms of prosodic elements,as Tomita,Oguri& Kawauchi(2011)state,it is almost
impossible for adults to acquire native‑like pronunciation or prosodic features after passing thecritical period from around age six to adolescence (p.12).Compared with people in other Asian
countries, the Japanese still do not have the necessity to use English in daily life outside ofbusiness situations. The concept does not yet exist in Japan for there to be an identifiable
variety of English that compares to “Singlish”in Singapore with its mixture of English,
Chinese, and M alay. Although there are many reasons for this, one factor is that the main
日本大学歯学部

外国語分野（英語）

Department of Foreign Languages (English)〒 101‑8310 東京都千代田区神田駿河台１‑８‑13(受理：2014年９月 29日）

Nihon University School of Dentistry
1‑8‑13 Kanda‑surugadai, Chiyoda‑ku, Tokyo 101‑8310, Japan9

日本大学歯学部紀要 42，9‑16，2014

contact Japanese students have with native English prosody is from textbooks or listening
exams that contain only American or British speech samples.
The L1 and L2 language distance between English and other languages within the Indo‑European group is considerably different from the distance between English and Japanese.
Haspelmath holds that “markedness is the typological distance between languages”(as cited in
Rasier and Hiligsmann,2007,p.46).In recent years other ways of comparing the salient featuresof two languages have included the analysis of interlanguage and before that, contrastive
analysis. All these approaches potentially result in useful processes that can assist learners indeveloping better prosodic performance.
2.2. The types of prosodic influence between L1 and L2
Wennerstrom (2001) describes prosody as consisting of factors such as intonation, rhythm,
stress,volume,tempo,voice quality and pauses (p.6).The structure of English prosody is quite
complex,and in order to master it at a native‑like level requires extensive input from various
types of sources including experience speaking with L1 speakers.Tomita et al.(2011)identify
the two aspects of language competency related to sounds as being perception and production(p.5). An essential aspect of L1 learning is ample input of the sounds of the mother language
during the critical period which enables children to eventually produce all the core sounds of
L1.In the case of FL learners,certain challenging pronunciation problems can be practiced withintensive input, e.g. the minimal pair “l”and “r”for Japanese speakers; however, converting
this knowledge into listening skills requires more than mere exposure. Thus, the order ofacquisition is reversed.
L1 acquisition : perception → production
L2 acquisition : production → perception
2.3. Four major skills and the Japanese education system
In recent years English language education in Japan has come to reflect a better balance ofthe four major language skills―reading,writing,speaking and listening.In the past,when the
purpose for learning English in Japan had been mainly to pass exams to achieve certain
rankings and qualification levels, this was not the case; today the exams themselves are also
being developed to assess all four skills. As a result, students need to develop better output
skills like writing and speaking,as well as input skills such as reading and listening.Tomita etal. (2011)mention the benefits of analyzing feedback from FL learners who have successfully
gained high level competency in these skills and are called ETLL, meaning “exceptionallytalented language learner”(p.31). One good model they have in common is that they listen to
sample sound sources and mimic the prosodic elements.Furthermore,they tend to use recording devices to review their pronunciation and compare it with the sample so they can adjust
their output accordingly.
Ample listening and repetition are important for three reasons: first, the student can get
used to the sounds of the L2 language; second, they nourish the perception of these sounds.
10English and Japanese Prosody

Finally,individual imitation and production of the sounds of the second language is an effective
learning strategy for FL learners that lack direct exposure to the L2 language. Recording
devices have been obtained with the development of technology, and Internet‑related sources
have dramatically improved in recent years in terms of practicing listening and speaking
abilities.Teachers should be aware of how theycan implement such materials for gaining input
from L1 sources.

３. Comparison of prosodic elements.
In this section, Japanese and English prosodic elements are compared and analyzed withparticular emphasis on rhythm, accent and pronunciation.
3.1. Rhythm
A comparison of the rhythmic structures of English and Japanese renders significant differences that need to be considered more carefully.English rhythm is created from the combination of accented and unaccented syllables of content and function words.This affects the lengthof each word in keeping with characteristic English rhythmic patterns.The following example
shows a simple exercise with sentences. Although extra function words are included, therhythm and the timing are not changed in English.The same beat pattern fits all four sentences,and the content words and its main vowel always gets the primary beat point.
●●●
1. Dogs chase cats●●●
2. The dogs chase the cats●●●
3. The dogs will chase the cats●●●
4. The dogs will be chasing the cats
Conversely,this rule does not apply to a pitch accent language like Japanese with its system
of moras consisting of a solitary vowel or one consonant plus one vowel. The influence ofEnglish words in Japanese language as Katakana loan words may be considered to have［r′nI ］is pronegative transfer in this respect. For example, the English word “running”
nounced with only two beats,and the strong beat comes on the phoneme［ ］.Japanese people
tend to pronounce this word with five moras that include a vowel after each consonant :“running”［r′nI ］

(3 syllables)

ランニング

ra n ni n gu

(5 moras)

Recognition of this difference is important for Japanese learners of English in order topromote better pronunciation and keener listening skills.
Another rhythmic hurdle for Japanese learners of English is the difficulty they have in
adapting to the frequent triple rhythmic groupings of English prosody. In a study conducted11日本大学歯学部紀要 42，9‑16，2014

with Japanese elementary school students, Morgan (2011)has noted their bias toward reinterpreting the characteristic triplets found in English prosody as duplets (p.84). This study
employed standard diagnostic measures used in the field of speech pathology to track Japanesechildrenʼs improvement in English pronunciation over the period of a school year.A surprisingoutcome of the study was the finding that a significant number of the participants,when asked
to repeat the following string of syllables “MA‑ma‑ma, MA‑ma‑ma, MA‑ma‑ma”would
repeat it as “
M A‑ma,M A‑ma,M A‑ma,MA‑ma,MA”.Morgan concluded that the reason forthis error was the transfer of the characteristic duple rhythmic groupings of Japanese to neutral
syllables organized to resemble English prosody as found in common phrases and manynames:1
2 3 1 2 (3)● ・ ･ ● ･How are you doing?

1 2 3 1 2 3● ･ ･ ● ・ ･
Edward G. Robinson

The pattern of Japanese rhythm is basically equal for each mora. Thus English rhythm
pattern needs to be practiced in a way that students can come to recognize the difference.
3.2. Accent
Rhythm and accent are strongly related to each other.English has stress accent and this ruleneeds to be consistent. Japanese however has pitch accent that is determined by the meaningof the words. Higher pitch gets some stress accent, but it does not have the same prosodic
factor. Rasier and Hiligsmann (2007) note that “the general picture that emerges from thescientific literature is that accent is a difficult prosodic phenomenon to acquire,and this seems
to hold true from quite diverse categories of L2 learners”(p.48). In addition, Japanese andEnglish speakers use different ranges of pitch.According to Murase (1996),English uses morethan 2000hz range whereas Japanese has the range between 125hz and 1500 (p.81). Japaneselearners need to realize that English accent needs to be higher,longer,and with a stronger beat.
Finally, based on the authorʼs observation of Japanese FL learners, the production of English
consonants needs abdominal breathing for fricative and plosive sounds, as well as wider andstronger mouth movement. Hence something akin to voice training for singing practice isneeded for Japanese speakers to become truly effective when speaking English.
3.2.1. Classroom application and assessment : accent
One exercise was conducted with a first‑year university English majors class (n＝22). The
classroom had CALL facilities so the students were asked to record their voice with thesentence “Originally, blues was the folk music of the African American community.”The
concept of syllables as well as primary stress in each word was explained with the word“originally”as an example,and then the students did an exercise based on dividing words intosyllables. In addition, the difference between content and function words was explained andshowed the strength of the accent as in the example below.Through this exercise the students
were able to see the volume of each accent more clearly.

12English and Japanese Prosody･ ● ･･･ ●
･ ･ ●
･･ ･
Originally, blues was the folk music of･ ● ･･ ･ ● ･･ ･ ● ･･
the African‑American community
After these explanations and short exercises,the students practiced the sentence again.Since
they still had significant L1 prosodic influence from the Japanese language,the students wereencouraged to exaggerate the accent and the beat that should be longer,stronger,and higher.
Directly after this practice they recorded the same sentence again.A preliminary evaluation of
the recording was conducted. The sound data were analyzed with Logic Pro software forvolume and pitch range differences. The initial results indicate that their overall command of
the prosodic elements of English improved dramatically.All of the students have louder volume
for the second recording ranging from 1 to 10bd average of 3.9bd. The example below shows
the wave shapes of the volume for one student.
The first recording has more influence from the Japanese mora‑based accent in that it does
not have drastic volume change. The second recording shows stronger accent point for eachcontent word. Adequate speed of each accent can be heard from the sound which shows thecharacteristics of English stress accent and length adjustment to create an appropriate interval
and rhythm.The data was analyzed about the pitch range using plug‑in software “Melodyne”
in Logic Pro.
First recording

Originally,

blues was the folk music of

the African

American community

blues was the folk music of

the African

American community

Second recording

Originally,

Figure 1 Waveforms of student speech samples

13日本大学歯学部紀要 42，9‑16，2014

Originally,

blues was the folk music of the African American community

Figure 2 Pitch range analyzed with Melodyne

Table 1 Number of semitones
Smallest range

Largest range

Average range

First Rec

3

13

7

Second Rec

4

17

11

The result of the pitch range was collected as shown in Table 1.The pitch range was checkedbythe width of the pitch.For example,one student had pitch G for the lowest and D the highest.
This becomes eight semi‑tone span. This way, the score of each of the student response wasanalyzed.
The first recording had the smallest range 3 and biggest range 13,which is the average of 7
for all the students.The second recording shows wider range for the total average 11 with thesmallest range 4 and largest range 17.M ost of the students had wider range for the second try
which can be interpreted as indicating that their accent behavior was more like English stressaccent.Some students made a big difference for the impression of the speech,e.g.many of themale students that had a lower pitch range were shifted to higher range pitch.
Comparing individual results of the first and second difference showed one case having ‑2
range for the difference. In other words, the second recording had smaller range. This can be
explained by the fact that the student was shy to make a change through the exercise sincemost of them have big difference you can hear from the recordings.Another had the same rangeof 12 semitones for both the first and second ranges. This showed that the student alreadyacquired a fairly good accent and it did not make a big change. The results suggest that it isimportant for teachers to provide some prosodic information so they can experience thedifference of L1 and L2 languages and it is also important for them to mimic and practice by14

English and Japanese Prosody

producing the sounds.
3.3. Pronunciation
L1 language transfer can happen when L2 vowels and consonants have more varieties than
L1 ones. The consonants［l］and［r］are typically confusing when Japanese learners firstencounter them. M oreover, a number of phonemes such as［ θ］do not exist in Japanese, so
Japanese learners tend to substitute a similar sound like［ ］. New pronunciation patterns canbe acquired by practice, however English vowel recognition would be more difficult since thevariation is about 15 to 20 comparing Japanese five vowels. In this context, Rasier and
Hiligsmann (2007)mention that, “Research results clearly indicate that segmental errors havea less detrimental effect on listenersʼjudgments of comprehensibility and accentedness of L2
speech than prosodic errors”(p.43). Still, Japanese learners tend to search for perfection andthus they are less confident to speak aloud. Tomita et al. (p.32) support the idea that IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet)education for FL learners can be effective since the language
is learnt with intention not like L1 having a great deal of input.Phonetic knowledge should be
helpful for FL learners to differentiate each sound. IPA consists of quite a few of the samephonemes as English spelling, so it should not too difficult for acquisition.
3.3.1. Classroom application and assessment : pronunciation
One class activity for speaking and listening skills used this procedure. The teacher reads
aloud for vocabulary quiz. This was a good way for the students to try spelling out even they
do not know the words. At the same time,this revealed their lack of phonics knowledge. The
following example shows some of the common errors they made:L and R confusion : breading/breeding (bleeding)Difficult spellings: rince (rinse); moiced (moist)
Phonics issue: mentenanse/meintenance (maintenance)
The concept in North American elementary schools known as phonemic awareness helps
students distinguish individual phonemes through rhyming and alliteration as taught throughpicture books (Leeper, 2013). Adapting this procedure for Japanese FL learners would be an
important step in helping them improve their pronunciation.

４. Conclusion
This paper focused on some aspects of the transfer of L1 on L2 prosody.In particular it wasnoted that Japanese studentsʼEnglish speaking and listening skills are influenced by thedifferences in the characteristic rhythmic and intonation patterns of their mother tongue.It was
found,however,that certain types of classroom activities can result in noticeable improvementin these areas. This outcome encourages the author to develop additional activities andundertake further research along these lines in the future.

15日本大学歯学部紀要 42，9‑16，2014

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