Is There a "Critical Period" in the Acquisition of English by Japanese Learners? Factors Affecting TOEIC Scores and the Production of English Rhythmic Patterns

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This study investigated the effects of two factors-age of arrival and length of residence in a target language country-on English proficiency of Japanese learners. We were interested in the relationships between the English proficiency measured by TOEIC scores and the proficiency measured by production of rhythmic patterns. Production experiments were carried out to examine the durational patterns of three subject groups: native speakers of American English, Japanese returnees who had lived in the U.S., and Japanese college students who had never lived overseas. We carried out acoustic analysis of the linguistic materials, measuring durations of target interstress intervals (ISI1) and the following ISIs (ISI2). For the purpose of the normalization of the speaking rates, the ratio ISI1/ISI2 was obtained. The results showed the significant differences both in the English proficiencies measured by TOEIC scores and the production patterns between returnees and general college students. We observed that the two factors of age of arrival and length of residence had an effect on the different degrees of attainment of the production proficiency. The results also indicated that the age factor can be complemented by other factors in the case of reading ability, but not in that of listening ability.
2012-03-28