Sessions

The Acquisition of Suprasegmentals in L2 English

The present study examines how college-level Japanese students acquire suprasegmental features of English pronunciation through explicit instruction. The suprasegmental differences between English and Japanese such as syllable structures and rhythmic differences were explicitly taught to students, and then the students learned to reduce sounds and control syllable duration at the word, phrase, and sentence levels. They also learned to produce assimilated and linked sounds to further improve their intelligibility.