A case study: How do Japanese learners of English learn to use acoustic cues to differentiate stressed and unstressed syllables in pronunciation training ?

As part of a case study of two adult Japanese learners of English, the present study investigated how they learned to use acoustic cues to differentiate English stressed and unstressed syllables through a pronunciation training program. The acoustic cues included F0, intensity, duration and vowel quality (F2-F1). They received pronunciation training focused on English syllable structure, word and sentence stress, consonants and vowels, coupled with reading and speaking practice with special attention to prosody. The results showed that the Japanese learners were able to learn to use F0 and intensity as the acoustic cues, but that it was much more difficult to learn to use duration and vowel quality. Possible accounts of the results and implications for teaching pronunciation are discussed.