Segmentals and Global Foreign Accent: The Japanese Flap in EFL

This article investigates the relationship between global foreign accent and a more discrete feature of pronunciation-the substitution of the Japanese flap ([r]) for English liquids (/J/ and /1/). The percentages of Japanese flap substitutions by 11 Japanese students during their first and fourth years of college were calculated for target /J/ versus /1/, in reading versus spontaneous tasks, and for word-initial singleton (#_V) versus word-initial cluster (#[C]C_V) environments. The number of observations for each speaker ranged from 276 to 318, and individuals' percentages of flap substitutions ranged from 0.4% to 77.8% for all attempts at English liquids. The principal finding was a strong negative correlation (r= -0.805) between percentages ofJapanese flap substitution and accent ratings. Furthermore, flaps occurred more often for /1/ than for /J/, more often for singleton liquids than for liquids in clusters, and more often in spontaneous than in reading tasks. The discussion addresses debate over teaching segmentals versus suprasegmentals and related pedagogical priorities.