English-language education in Japan

1.

English-language
education in Japan
Stryapunina Vika

2.

Engrish
Engrish is a slang term for the misuse or corruption of the English
language by native speakers of Asian languages. The term itself
relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the
English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, a process known as
lallation, because, unlike English, the Japanese language has only
one liquid consonant( traditionally romanized with "R").
The term Engrish first appears as an Asian mispronunciation of the
word English in the 1940s, but it was not until the 1980s that it began to
be used to as a byname for defective Asian English. The related term
"wasei-eigo" refers to pseudo-anglicisms that have entered into
everyday Japanese.

3.

English-language education in Japan began as early as 1600 with the initial
contacts between the Japanese and Europeans. Almost all students
graduating from high school in Japan have had several years of English
language education; however, many still do not have fluent English
conversation abilities.

4.

Difficulties
Japanese students experience great difficulty in studying English, due to
fundamental differences in grammar and syntax, as well as important
differences in pronunciation. Japanese word order, the frequent omission of
subjects in Japanese, the absence of articles, the functional absence of plural
forms, as well as difficulties in distinguishing l and r all contribute to substantial
problems using English effectively. Indeed, Japanese have tended to score
comparatively poorly on international tests of English.

5.

Difficulties
An additional factor has been the use of English in daily life for "decorative" or
"design" rather than functional purposes. That is, for Japanese consumption,
not for English speakers per se, and as a way of appearing "smart,
sophisticated and modern". Indeed, it is claimed that in such decorative
English "there is often no attempt to try to get it right, nor do the vast majority
of the Japanese population . . . ever attempt to read the English design
element in question . . . There is therefore less emphasis on spell checking and
grammatical accuracy."

6.

Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by
Japanese speakers
Japanese has one liquid phoneme /r/, realized usually as an apico-alveolar
tap [ɾ] and sometimes as an alveolar lateral approximant [l]. English has two:
rhotic /r/ and lateral /l/, with varying phonetic realizations centered on the
postalveolar approximant [ɹ] and on the alveolar lateral approximant [l],
respectively. Japanese speakers who learn English as a second language later
than childhood often have difficulty in hearing and producing the /r/ and /l/
of English accurately.

7.

There are numerous minimal pairs of words
distinguishing only /r/ and /l/.
right/light
red/led
road/load
arrive/alive
correct/collect
crime/climb
bread/bled
froze/flows
The Japanese adaptation of English words is largely non-rhotic, in that English /r/ at the end
of a syllable is realized either as a vowel or as nothing and therefore is distinguished from /l/ in
the same environment. So store and stole or stall, for example, are distinguished as sutoa and
sutōru, respectively. Speakers may also hear English /r/ as similar to the Japanese /w/

8.

Weakening
/b, ɡ/ between vowels may be weakened to fricatives, especially in fast or casual speech
However, /ɡ/ is further complicated by its variant realization as a velar nasal [ŋ]. Standard
Japanese speakers can be categorized into 3 groups (A, B, C), which will be explained below. If
a speaker pronounces a given word consistently with the allophone [ŋ] (i.e. a B-speaker), that
speaker will never have [ɣ] as an allophone in that same word. If a speaker varies between [ŋ]
and [ɡ] (i.e. an A-speaker) or is generally consistent in using [ɡ] (i.e. a C-speaker), then the velar
fricative [ɣ] is always another possible allophone in fast speech.
/ɡ/ may be weakened to nasal [ŋ] when it occurs within words—this includes not only between
vowels but also between a vowel and a consonant. There is a fair amount of variation between
speakers, however. Vance (1987) suggests that the variation follows social class, while Akamatsu
(1997) suggests that the variation follows age and geographic location. The generalized situation
is as follows.
At the beginning of words
all present-day standard Japanese speakers generally use the stop [ɡ] at the beginning of words:
/ɡaijuu/ > [ɡaijɯː] gaiyū 外遊 'overseas trip' (but not *[ŋaijɯː])
In the middle of simple words (i.e. non-compounds)
a) a majority of speakers use either [ŋ] or [ɡ] in free variation: /kaɡu/ > [kaŋɯ] or [kaɡɯ] kagu 家具
'furniture'
b) a minority of speakers consistently use [ŋ]: /kaɡu/> > [kaŋɯ] (but not *[kaɡɯ])
c) most speakers in western Japan and a smaller minority of speakers in Kantō consistently use [ɡ]:
/kaɡu/> > [kaɡɯ] (but not *[kaŋɯ])

9.

Nasalization
Japanese vowels are slightly nasalized when adjacent to nasals /m, n/. Before
the moraic nasal /N/, vowels are heavily nasalized:
/kaNtoo/> > [kantoː] Kantō 関東 'Kanto region'
/seesaN/> > [seːsãɴ] seisan 生産 'production'

10.

Glottal stop insertion
At the beginning and end of utterances, Japanese vowels may be preceded
and followed by a glottal stop [ʔ], respectively. This is demonstrated below
with the following words (as pronounced in isolation):
/eN/ > [eɴ] ~ [ʔeɴ]:
en 円 'yen'
/kisi/ > [kiɕiʔ]: kishi 岸 'shore'
/u/> > [ɯʔ ~ ʔɯʔ]:
u 鵜 'cormorant'
When an utterance-final word is uttered with emphasis, this glottal stop is
plainly audible, and is often indicated in the writing system with a small letter
tsu ⟨っ⟩ called a sokuon. This is also found in interjections like あっ and えっ.
These words are likely to be romanized as ⟨a'⟩ and ⟨e'⟩.

11.

Some common interference points
between Japanese and English:
Vowel system differences (English has many more vowels than Japanese
and two of them, æ and ?, are critical additions
Consonant system differences (r/l, s/z/sh/?, h and f, v and b, the use of
voicing, and clusters of consonants)
Stress and vowel reductions, and the role they play in English rhythm
Word endings (vowel endings in Japanese vs. consonant endings in English)
and what to do about them (liaisons)
Pitch range, and volume are used differently–English uses a much wider
pitch range; pitch change is melodic and variable in English but systematic
and regular in Japanese

12.

Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4MsJHnlRA&list=RDCMUC4yqcgz49APdbgj0OMv7jpA&start_radio=1&t=61
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPcKa7LHoak