Reiko A. Yamada, Yoh'ichi Tohkura, and Noriko Kobayashi
Effect of Word Familiarity on Non-native Phoneme Perception:
Identification of English /r/, /l/, and /w/
by Native Speakers of Japanese.
Abstract:The effect of semantic familiarity that stimuli have on the identification of word
initial English /r/, /l/, and /w/ phonemes by native speakers of Japanese learning
English was studied. The identification test of initial consonant of stimuli presented
auditorily was performed. The subjective familiarity of the stimuli for Japanese natives
was also measured. The responses in the identification test significantly correlated with
the score of familiarity for Japanese natives on average. Furthermore, when only the
initial CV part of the same stimuli were presented, the responses did not correlate with
word familiarity. Responses in Japanese subjects highly skilled in identifying /r/, /l/,
and /w/ phonemes did not correlate with word familiarity. These results suggest that
word familiarity affects the identification judgement of non-native phonemes in words
when the ability to identify those phonemes is poor.