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The Effects of Utilizing Japanese Songs for Acquiring Japanese Pitch as a Foreign Language
Hirano, Erika
Hirano, Erika
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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of utilizing a Japanese song for acquiring Japanese pitch as a foreign language. Not only is Japanese pitch one of the more difficult things to teach in the classroom, but there are few methods for Japanese language learners to acquire it. This study examined how the melody pitch of a Japanese song was influential in the learners' speech pitch after practicing the song. Sixteen native-American-English-speaking college students who were taking Beginning Japanese courses participated in this study. Since the melody-pitch of the song and the language-pitch of the lyrics flow similar to each other, Karatachi no hana, composed by Hakushu Kitahara & Kōsaku Yamada, was utilized in this study. The two Japanese sentences (taken from the lyrics of the song) were recorded by all participants as a pre test. The eight participants in the experimental group (EG) practiced these two sentences with the song, and those in the control group (CG) practiced without the song for three weeks (5-min. sessions, twice a week). The same sentences were recorded by all participants during the post test. All data were acoustically analyzed by measuring the pitch (fundamental frequency; F0). As for the results, no significant difference was found between the two groups regarding pitch improvement. Therefore, the use of the song was not directly correlated with pitch improvement. However, some improvements in pitch and other segmental and suprasegmental features, such as vowel quality, notion of mora, and reduction of unwanted pauses, were observed in individual results when comparing their pre and post test for both groups. These results suggest that these other phonetic features were also related to the improvement of pitch. This study proved that the use of song and recitation had the similar effect on pitch improvement.
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Date
2008-04-22
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University of Kansas
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This item contains archived web content.
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- Embargoed until 2158-05-31
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Keywords
Education, Language and Literature, Language, Linguistics, Japanese Pitch, Foreign Language Education, Japanese Songs