The acquisition of /r/ and /l/ by Japanese children and adults learning English as a second language

Abstract

In Experiment I, 54 native Japanese children (ages 3–12) and 24 Japanese adults residing in the USA were required to produce and discriminate the English /r/ and /l/ in a variety of speaking and listening tasks. Children's /r/ and /l/ speaking performances were found to be significantly better than adults’. Three factors ‐ age, sociolinguistic factors, and linguistic factors ‐ emerged as significant predictors of the Japanese children's /r/ and /l/ abilities. No significant predictors were found for Japanese adults’ performances. In Experiment II, 17 of the Japanese subjects received identical, programmed /r/ and /l/ training, followed by repetition of the initial evaluation procedures. Only the Japanese adults improved significantly on all post‐training measures.

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