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영어

Non-native speakers of Japanese feel that Japanese tokushuhaku (long vowels /R/, geminates /Q/, and syllabic nasals /N/) syllables are difficult. This study investigates the acquisition of Japanese tokushuhaku production by 11 Korean learners of Japanese. Kashima (2001) and Yang (2004) show that Korean learners of Japanese have difficulty with rhythmic type 212 (ex. ei /ga / kan，kiQ / sa / ten etc.). This study used 42 words consisting of 10 rhythmic types, type 11, type 12, type 21, type 22, type 111, type 121, type 122, type 212, type 221, and type 222). The words were presented to participants in the carrier sentence ‘korewa ~ desu (This is ~)’ which they read aloud. Their production was recorded. Data was taken twice with a year interval between recordings. There are three main results: 1) The rhythmic types were acquired in the following order 12 ￫ 111 222 ￫ 22 ￫ 11 ￫ 21 ￫ 221 ￫ 212 ￫ 121 ￫ 122. This order demonstrates a tendency to acquire simple rhythmic types before complex types. 2) The more mora in the word, the more difficult it is to acquire (p<.001). 3) There was not any significant improvement over the year of this study observed.