Open AccessEffects of Oral Repetition on Learners’ Japanese Word Accentuation
Author(s) -
Kayo Yoshida,
Atsushi Fukada
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the iall journal of language learning technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1050-0049
DOI - 10.17161/iallt.v44i1.8533
Subject(s) - stress (linguistics) , repetition (rhetorical device) , memorization , psychology , task (project management) , word (group theory) , mathematics education , class (philosophy) , rote learning , test (biology) , linguistics , teaching method , computer science , speech recognition , artificial intelligence , cooperative learning , paleontology , philosophy , management , economics , biology
Japanese word accentuation is a problematic area for learnersunfamiliar with a pitch accent system. Since accent locations areunpredictable, learners are typically told to memorize them by rote,which is a time-consuming, tedious, and demanding task. It wouldcertainly be ideal for learners to learn correct accentuation withoutexplicit instruction as they learn new words. This article reports on apreliminary study that examined effects of a computer-based onlineword repetition exercise on the learning of Japanese wordaccentuation. 41 students in their 10th week and 17 students in their12th week in a 2nd-year 1st-semester Japanese course took a pretest,followed by computer-based online word repetition practice on theSpeak Everywhere system, a posttest immediately after the practice,and a delayed posttest after one week (class-and-computer condition).Out of the same group of students now in a 2nd-year 2nd-semestercourse, 22 students took a pretest, followed by two posttests in their 5thweek (class-only condition). A paired t-test (two tailed) performed on13 overlapping subjects found a significant difference between the twoconditions (t=5.58, p<.001, Cohen’s d =1.9309). The online word repetition practice produced a significant gain in accentuation scores without explicit instruction, while classroom instruction alone was not sufficient to produce a significant gain.