TITLE:
To What Extent Does Accent Sensitivity Provide the Foundation for Lexical Knowledge and Listening Comprehension?
AUTHORS:
Arthur D. Meerman, Sachiko Kiyama, Katsuo Tamaoka
KEYWORDS:
Accent Sensitivity, Lexical Knowledge, Listening Comprehension, Japanese EFL Students, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.3,
August
28,
2014
ABSTRACT: The present study
investigated the extent to which accent sensitivity provides the foundation for
lexical knowledge and listening comprehension for Japanese university students
learning English as a foreign language (EFL). On an English accent correctness
(i.e., YES/NO response) decision task, 63 participants showed considerably high
accuracy and speed in identifying correctly-accented nouns (82.14% and 1091 ms)
and adverbs (86.67% and 959 ms). However, students were much less accurate in
rejecting incorrectly-accented nouns (72.33% and 910 ms) and adverbs (67.67%
and 933 ms). The results of a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis
showed that accent sensitivity makes no contribution to either participants’
lexical knowledge or listening comprehension skills. In contrast, a strong
direct effect was found from lexical knowledge to listening comprehension. As
such, accent knowledge by Japanese EFL students is isolated from their lexical
knowledge, with no contribution to their ability for listening comprehension.