著者

山根 繁

出版者

関西大学外国語学部

雑誌

関西大学外国語学部紀要 = Journal of foreign language studies (ISSN:18839355)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, pp.129-141, 2015-10

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Today, English is not only used as a means of communication in English speaking countriesbut also in many other countries in the world as a useful tool for international communication.In terms of “English as an International Language,” we may be able to regard “JapaneseEnglish” as one variant of English. Then, to what extent is English spoken by Japaneselearners intelligible? Should all the pronunciation errors be corrected? There seems to be a general shift of interest in research on error analysis from the categorization of errors committed by non-native speakers of the target language to the investigation of the intelligibilityof non-native speech judged by native/non-native speakers. More recent studies,however, concentrate more upon how these errors are perceived by native/non-nativespeakers and which errors impede communication. It is reasonable to assume that there may be some errors in pronunciation which are relatively more understandable, while other errorsseverely disrupt communication. It is pointed out in this paper that misplaced word accentwould severely impede intelligibilty. Pronunciation errors in consonants also affect intelligibilty while the effects of vowel mispronunciation might have on communication were limited.