P.P and P.

Abstract
The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate how an area of a Japanese English language learner’s pronunciation differs from a native English speaker and could impede his intelligibility. Schwa (/ə/ and /əʳ/) is the most frequently used reduced vowel in North American English and it helps to regulate the rhythm of spoken English. The absence of schwa in the Japanese language makes it difficult for a Japanese English language learner to pronounce some words properly and learn the stress and rhythm of English. As a result his intelligibility is hindered.

Introduction 1. Pronunciation instruction and material should help learners gain knowledge and skills that will improve their intelligibility and allow them to communicate effectively. Communication cannot take place if the speaker is not understood. To measure how well a second language learner is understood his level of intelligibility needs to be defined. Munro believes that “Intelligibility is the single most important aspect of all communication. If there is no intelligibility, communication has failed.” (Munro p.13, 2011). For the purpose of this paper intelligibility is defined as failed communication. If the learner cannot be understood then his intelligibility has been affected.

Transcription 2. When the Japanese learner said “shelter housing is for older people” [ˈʃeltəʳ ˈhaʊzɪŋ ɪz fəʳ ˈoʊldəʳ ˈpiːpl̩], what was heard was “shelter housing is for all the people” [ˈʃeltəʳ ˈhaʊzɪŋ ɪz fəʳ ˈɒl ðə ˈpiːpl]. He used the unstressed vowel /əʳ/ several times and was intelligible for the most part. When he said “shelter housing” [ˈʃeltəʳ ˈhaʊzɪŋ] he was understood because his instructor asked him to “explain sheltered housing”. Thus he was provided with the proper pronunciation of shelter and he echoed his teacher. When he said “for” [fəʳ] it was understood because he was explaining sheltered housing and the preposition ‘for’ is commonly used to explain things (e.g. A pen is for writing.). When he said “older people” [oʊldəʳ ˈpiːpl̩], it sounded like ‘all the people’ [ˈɒl ðə ˈpiːpl] and this is what impeded his intelligibility. (See Appendix A p.19 for Transcription Key)

Premise 3. It is important to mention that the following material should be taught over the course of several lessons rather than just one because it takes time and effort for students to learn a new language feature and make it a natural part of their speech.

4. The first material that was chosen focuses on properly producing /ə/ (schwa). In the transcription of the Japanese learner’s speech there are many words that he said that contain schwa (See Appendix D p.25), because it is the most frequently used reduced vowel in English and it becomes even more prevalent when reduced vowels with a postvocalic /r/ as in older are involved (Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M., & Grimer, B., 2010). Regardless of the regular occurrence of schwa in his transcribed speech he still needs help using it to improve the stress and rhythm of his English.

5. English is a stress-timed language and Japanese is a syllable-timed language (Ohata, 2004). The basic timing unit of Japanese is called a mora. Each mora is pronounced with equal stress regardless of whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed and should take about the same amount of time. Unstressed syllables like schwa /ə/ tend to be over-pronounced. Consequently, Japanese learners’ speech may sound choppy to a native English speaker and this rhythm can affect intelligibility (Ohata, 2004). The rhythm and stress of English is created by combining stressed and unstressed syllables (Nespor, Shulka and Mehler, 2011). The rhythm of Japanese is controlled by the number of syllables in a given phrase, not the number of stressed parts (Ohata, 2004). As a result the stress received by each syllable is much more even than in English. Main words are not stressed enough, while unstressed syllables are not reduced enough. The chosen material can improve the Japanese learner’s English stress, rhythm and intelligibility.

6. Another factor that can impede intelligibility is when a student is required to learn a phoneme that does not exist in Japanese. There is no /ə/ (schwa) in Japanese (Fujii, 1999), so when a student is taught a phoneme that does not exist in their mother tongue they are going to struggle to use it accurately. Consequently this material cannot be properly learned until the Japanese learner understands the language difference (Setter, 2003). The student could be made aware of this by contrasting /ə/ (focus, allow) with /ɑ/ (pot, doll). The /ɑ/ sound does exist in Japanese (Ohata, 2004), so the learner will have a familiar sound to compare and contrast schwa to and then the amount of phonetic interference will be smaller.

First Selected Material 7. The introduction of the “[ə] cup” (Lane, 2005 p.21) material begins by letting the student know that “[ə] is the most common vowel in English. It is the sound of most unstressed vowels” (Lane, 2005 p.21). The material then uses a picture to show how to say schwa and uses words to demonstrate how to position your mouth. (See Appendix B p.20) ‘Explanation in words and by diagram’ exercises are flawed because they assume that students will comprehend the words or pictures and then be able to make the necessary sound. However if the particular sound being taught is new to the students they may have difficulty positioning their mouths properly (Setter, 2003). Despite this perceived weakness, diagrams of speech organs can be useful tools to accentuate what position the mouth and tongue are in when schwa is made, so diagrams are a good way to introduce a sound and start the process of learning (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010).

8. The next part of the material refers to schwa as the English “hesitation word – uh” (Lane, 2005 p.21) and uses it in a short illustrated cartoon dialogue to explain the sound (See Appendix B p.20). This approach is a useful method to explain to students how the pronunciation point they are studying about is part of everyday language (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). However this particular dialogue could have a negative effect on fluency, because it is promoting pause markers. The Japanese student struggles with his fluency on the recording, so it may be better to use this dialogue as simply a sound reference.

9. The material then focuses on the spelling of /ə/ words. This can be beneficial to the Japanese learner because it gives him an idea of some of the words that have the schwa sound, how the sound is produced and when it is used in conversation. At this point of the lesson he should be aware of the sound and be able to demonstrate it, so having some words to practice with can be helpful. If he cannot make the sound well, the learner needs to be further “sensitized” (Setter, 2003 p.A14) to how different Japanese and English pronunciation are.

10. The subsequent material concentrates on focused practice. The first activity is “Listen and Practice: Words with [ə]”, the second exercise is “Listen and Practice: Phrases with [ə]” and the third task is “Sounds and Spelling” (Lane, 2005 p.22). (See Appendix B pp.20,21) Listen and repeat exercises are a common method for teaching pronunciation, but in order for the learner to make the sound he has to be able to identify it. The learner could become disheartened if he is not able to hear schwa properly and is then asked to make the sound, because it does not exist in Japanese. It is therefore important to lessen the disappointment by allowing the student to get used to hearing schwa and understanding how meaningful it is (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). If the sound cannot be produced well, more clarity is needed and the activities would be better after the learner has acquired schwa. However if the learner can understand /ə/ at this point in the lesson he would benefit from these listening activities. The tasks can help him scrutinize his development and “closely monitor” (Setter 2003, p.A13) his production of the schwa. When the learner understands the point being taught he can control his use of /ə/ and this can lead to better execution. McLaughlin and Heredia (1996, as cited in Celce-Murcia et al., 2010) stated that learning starts with measured thoughts in the student’s short-term memory and that repetition leads to routine use of the feature being taught. Once the Japanese learner is able to use schwa comfortably other activities can be focused on. Activities that lend themselves to using specific sound features (schwa) correctly, such as practicing and repeating saying sentences, short dialogues short poems or children’s rhymes (Celce-Murcia et al.).

11. The chosen pronunciation material focuses on the activities mentioned above. The next exercises are “Saying Sentences” and “Dialogues” (Lane 2005, p.23). The saying sentences activity focuses on listening to the lines of a poem, repeating them and then practicing the poem with a partner. The particular poem that is used (Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear) is also a children’s rhyme. (See Appendix B p.21)

12. According to Celce-Murcia et al. (2010) poetry can be a very productive way to teach the stress and rhythm of English. As previously mentioned English is thought to be a stress-timed language, while Japanese is said to be a mora-timed language (Ohata, 2004). It would be a very useful activity for the Japanese learner because it would help him understand the rules for sentence stress and rhythm in English and allow him to focus on the unstressed vowels (schwa) which are in bold text in the poem. (See Appendix B p.21)

13. The material also focuses on linking reduced speech (schwa) by asking the learner to link ‘was‿a’ and ‘was‿he’ and pronounce the words together as one word. Poetry is a useful way to teach linking reduced speech (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). When teaching linked speech instructors have to be careful to speak at a suitable speed. If the teacher speaks too fast the listener cannot process the information properly, but if the instruction is too slow than the speech is not linked as it would be in natural discourse. It is difficult for many learners to understand linked reduced speech because many ESL instructors speak too clearly during lessons to help learners comprehend the material. As a result students are not properly prepared when they try to converse with a native English speaker outside of the classroom (Avery, P., & Ehrlich, S., 1992).

14. Dialogues are another activity that can be used for guided pronunciation practice. The chosen pronunciation material asks the learner to listen and fill in the blanks with words that have the /ə/ vowel. The student is then asked to make short dialogues by matching questions to answers. (See Appendix B p.21) This task can help the Japanese learner continue to focus on correctly using schwa, but also allow him to use schwa in conversation. Dialogues can be used for focused practice, but can also be used for less controlled or “guided practice” (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.47). Once the learner is accurately using schwa he can be introduced to tasks that allow him to communicate the language provided, but also express his own ideas. The chosen material provides questions and responses that give the student an opportunity to use schwa fluently and accurately in “lightly monitored” (Setter 2003, p.A13) practice.

Second Selected Material 15. The other material that was selected to help the Japanese learner focuses on vowels followed by /r/. In North American English (NAE) the pronunciation of vowels followed by /r/ is different than the Received Pronunciation (RP) of some British English speakers. NAE is rhotic, so the /r/ is pronounced at the end of a syllable. While British English is nonrhotic and the /r/ is pronounced only before vowels, not following them (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). The pronunciation of ‘older’ in NAE is [oʊldəʳ] and in RP is [əʊldə]. The Japanese learner was being taught by an instructor who uses RP, so it may be argued that he pronounced the word intelligibly according to RP. According to an experienced NAE instructor (See Appendix E p.26), what he said was difficult to understand and the assignment is to choose an area of pronunciation which could impede intelligibility. Therefore the following material will make the Japanese learner easier to comprehend.

16. The chosen material starts the same way as the other material by using diagrams to show how to say common vowels followed by /r/. It also uses words to show how to position your mouth. It then explains the different spellings of the /əʳ/ sound. (See Appendix C p.22) The advantages and disadvantages of these exercises have already been explained above, so the focus of this part of the critical evaluation will be on the other activities provided by the unit.

17. Before the focused practice section of the material students are reminded to learn to pronounce /r/ after vowels because it is the most common form of American pronunciation (Lane, 2005). The first three activities in the focused practice part of the material are listen, repeat and practice tasks. (See Appendix C pp.23,24) The fourth activity focuses on the complicated /rl/ cluster and advises students to pronounce it as two syllables joined together [ərəl]. It is well documented that Japanese students have trouble pronouncing NAE /r/. Learners who have difficulty producing NAE /r/ also tend to have problems pronouncing /rl/ (Saito, 2011). By inserting /ə/ (schwa) it helps learners produce the sound (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010). However Japanese learners already have a tendency to insert short vowels into consonant clusters, because they find these sound combinations very difficult to produce. Japanese students are also likely to add a vowel after final consonants, especially when the final consonant is /r/ (Swan and Smith, 2001). As a result this particular activity should be watched closely by the instructor because this insertion of sounds or epenthesis is a habit that is very hard for students to break (Swan and Smith, 2001). The learner needs to pay careful attention to making the sound properly and once he can produce the sound well he can move on to tasks that focus more on communication.

18. The fifth task centers around the proper production of /rl/, but also using it to express information by having the students write and say superlative sentences ending with ‘in the world’ (Lane, 2005 p.33). (See Appendix C p.24) This activity gives the learner an opportunity to use the /rl/ sound fluently and accurately to discuss different places or things in the world. After the exercise is finished the student could have a conversation about the places and things in activity five.

Conclusion 19. The chosen material is both structured (listen and repeat) and open (dialogue). It is meant to focus on improving his production of schwa (/ə/ and /əʳ/) while also making his English stress, rhythm and intelligibility better, so that he is easier to converse with. It has been debated that intelligible pronunciation is the most important skill for a second language learner to acquire. Even students with a solid grasp of grammar and vocabulary can have difficulty communicating with native English speakers if their pronunciation is unintelligible (Saito, 2007). It is equally true that even if the Japanese learner has clear pronunciation, it does not guarantee smooth communication. The purpose of pronunciation instruction and all other aspects of language learning should be focused on equally to enable learners to interact productively. (Word Count: 2,478)

Bibliography
Avery, P. & Ehrlich, S., (1992 ). Teaching American English Pronunciation. London: Oxford University Press.

Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Pearson Education: New York

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M., & Grimer, B., (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Fujii, I. (1999). Interlanguage Phonology of Japanese Speakers of English in South Wales. LiberPress: Tokyo

Gibson, S (2008). Reading Aloud: A Useful Tool?. ELT Journal. 62 (1), pp.29-36

Gilbert, J.B., (2005). Clear Speech: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English. New York: Cambridge.

Lane, L. (2005). Focus on Pronunciation 2. Pearson Education: New York
Lane, L. (2005). Focus on Pronunciation 3. Pearson Education: New York

Lightbown, P. and N. Spada. (2006). How Languages are Learned. Oxford University Press: New York

Munro, M. J. (2011). Intelligibility: Buzzword or buzzworthy?. In. J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.). Proceedings of the 2nd Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Sept. 2010. (pp.7-16), Ames, IA: Iowa State University.

Nespor, M., Shukla, M., & Mehler, J. (2011). ‘Stress-timed vs. Syllable-timed
Languages’. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology Volume II: Suprasegmental and Prosodic Phonology. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. pp.(1147-1159)

Ohata, K., (2004). Phonological Differences between Japanese and English:
Several Potential Problematic Areas of Pronunciation for Japanese ESL/EFL Learners. Asian EFL Journal. 6 (4), pp.1-19

Porter, D. (1998) MAELT Pedagogic Phonetics and Phonology. Reading: The University of Reading.
Saito, K., (2007). The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English. The Linguistics Journal. 3 (3), pp.16-40

Saito, K. (2011). Identifying Problematic Segmental Features to Acquire
Comprehensible Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of Japanese Learners of English. RELC Journal. 42 (3), pp.363-378

Setter, J (2003) MAELT Pedagogic Phonetics and Phonology. Reading: The University of Reading.

Silverman, D. (2011). 'Schwa '. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology Volume I: General Issues and Segmental Phonology. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. pp.(628-642).

Sugai, Y. (2009). Schwa Pronunciation by Japanese EFL Learners. University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. pp.1-6 Retrieved from clrlab1.u-aizu.ac.jp/publications.html Swan, M. & Smith, B., (2001). Learner English. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Wells, J.C., (2000). Overcoming phonetic interference. Journal of English Phonetics Society of Japan. 3, pp.9-21

Appendix A: Transcription Key using North American English Transcription Key | Sound | Examples | Sound | Examples | I. The consonants of North American English | 1. /b/ 2. /p/ 3. /d/ 4. /t/
5. /g/
6. /k/
7. /v/
8. /f/
9. /ð/
10. /θ/
11. /z/
12. /s/ | boy, cabpie, lipdog, bedtoe, catgo, begcat, backview, lovefill, lifethe, bathethin, bathzoo, goessee, bus | 13. /ʒ/
14. /ʃ/
15. /h/
16. /tʃ/
17. /dʒ/
18. /m/
19. /n/
20. /ŋ/ 21. /l/
22. /r/
23. /w/
24. /hw/
25. /y/ | leisure, beigeshy, dishhis, aheadcheek, watchjoy, budgeme, seemno, sunsing(er), bang long, fullrun, carwin, awaywhich, whatyou, soya | II. The stressed vowels of North American English | 1. /iy/
2. /ɪ/
3. /ey/
4. /ɛ/
5. /æ/
6. /ɑ/
7. /ɔ/ | pea, feetpin, fitpain, fatepen, fedpan, fadpot, dollbought, talk | 8. /ow/ 9. /ʊ/ 10. /uw/ 11. /ay/ 12. /aw/ 13. /y/
14. /ʌ/
15. /ɜʳ/ | pole, toe put, footpool, stew pine, fight pound, foul poise, foil pun, cutbird, third | III. The unstressed vowels of North American English | 1. /ə/
2. /əʳ/
3. /i/ | focus, allowfather, bittercity, prefer | 4. /ɪ/
5. /o/
6. /u/ | music, copinghotel, narrowinto, igloo |

Appendix B: First Example of Published Learning Material
Unit 5: [ə] cup
INTRODUCTION
* [ə] is the most common vowel in English. It is the sound of most unstressed vowels.

Look at the picture. It shows you how to say the sound [ə].

[ə] cup, money
Your mouth is almost closed.
Your tongue rests in the center of your mouth.

* The English “hesitation word” uh is the vowel [ə].
A: Where is the restaurant?
B: The restaurant is …uh…uh…I think it’s on State Street. Spellings for [ə] | Common u (between consonants): cup, luck, sudden, dullOther o: money, some, love, once, government ou: country, tough, enough, touch, trouble oe: does, doesn’t a: what, was oo: blood, flood | Same spelling, different sounds: o: monkey [ə] donkey [ɑ] done, one [ə] alone, stone [ow] ou: rough [ə] although [ow] through [uw] bought, sought [ɔ] oo: flood, blood [ə] food, mood [uw] good, wood, hood [ʊ]Different spellings, same sound: o, u: son, sun [ə] u, ou: us, jealous [ə] |
FOCUSED PRACTICE 1. Listen and Practice: Words with [ə] |
Listen to these words and repeat them. Your mouth should be almost closed when you say [ə].

1. son 2. once 3. love | 4. number 5. wasn’t 6. thumb | 7. country 8. doesn’t 9. cup | 10. dull 11. money 12. blood |

2. Listen and Practice: Phrases with [ə] |
Listen to these phrases and repeat them. 1. a summer Sunday 2. enough money 3. a hungry buffalo | 4. my younger brother 5. a sudden flood 6. double trouble | 7. does or doesn’t 8. funny stuff 9. a loving mother |

3. Sounds and Spelling | A. Listen to these word pairs. The first word has the [ə] vowel. If the vowel in the second word is the same, write S. If it is different, write D.

1. what, hat _____ 2. flood, foot _____ 3. country, count _____ 4. sun, son _____ 5. luck, lock _____ | 6. tough, though _____ 7. cut, company _____ 8. one, won _____ 9. done, bone _____ 10. rush, touch _____ |
B. Work in small groups. Choose two pairs that are the same and two pairs that are different. Say them to your group. 4. Saying Sentences |
A. Listen to the lines of the poem and repeat them. In sentence 3, the h of he is not pronounced and was he is pronounced exactly like Wuzzy.
1. Fuzzy Wuzzy was‿a bear.
2. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
3. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was‿he?
B. Practice the poem with a partner. Join words together and speak smoothly. 5. Dialogues |
A. Listen and fill in the blanks. The missing words have the [ə] vowel. Questions 1. What do you want for ____________? 2. Are you ____________ than your ____________? 3. How ____________ ____________ do you have? 4. Why did your ____________ call? 5. What happened to your ____________? | AnswersA. Not even ____________ to take the ____________.B. She’s ____________ next ____________.C. No. He’s the ____________ in the family. D. ____________. I’m not ____________.E. I ____________ it with a ____________ knife. |
B. Work with a partner. Make five short dialogues by matching questions from the left column with responses from the right. Practice reading the dialogues

Appendix C: Second Example of Published Learning Material
Unit 7: Vowels followed by [r]: The complex sound in world
INTRODUCTION
* [r] AFTER VOWELS

Turn the tip of your tongue up and slightly back.

* COMMON VOWELS BEFORE [r]

The sound in her and first: [ər] | The sound in or and door: [or] | The sound in are and hard: [ɑr] | [ər] | [or] | [ɑr] | * The mouth is almost closed. * The lips are slightly rounded. * Turn the tip of your tongue up and back. | * The lips are rounded. * Turn the tip of your tongue up and back. | * The mouth is open. * The lips are not rounded. * Turn the tip of your tongue up and back. |

The sound in world and girl: [ərl] or [ərəl] | [r] girl [ərl] or [ərəl] [l] | * Your mouth is almost closed and your lips are a little rounded. * Follow these two steps to say the sounds: * Turn the tip of your tongue up and back for [r]. * It then touches behind the top teeth for [l]. * If this sound is difficult, pronounce it as two syllables joined together: [ərəl] | * SPELLINGS OF [ər]
This sound has several spellings.

Common spellings | wor + consonant | Less common spellings | er serveir firstur hurt | work wordworth worry | our journeyear earth |

* DIALECTS
There are some dialects of American English that drop “r” after vowels, but not when the next word begins with a vowel. You should learn to pronounce [r] after vowels because most varieties of American English do not drop “r”.
FOCUSED PRACTICE 1. Words with Vowel + r |
Listen to the words and repeat them. Turn the tip of your tongue up and back to make [r]. Then practice saying the words with a partner. [ər] | [ɑr] | [ɪr] | [ɛr] | 1. were 2. first 3. heard | 4. hard 5. far 6. heart | 7. hear 8. fear 9. near | 10. hair 11. fair 12. wear | [or] | [ayər] | [awər] | [(y)ʊr] | 13. tore 14. pour 15. war | 16. tire 17. fire 18. hire | 19. hour 20. tower 21. sour | 22. tour 23. cure 24. pure |

2. Hearing Differences | A. Listen to the words and repeat them. Then listen again and circle the word you hear.

1. a. earb. air | 3. a. toreb. tour | 5. a. heardb. hard | 7. a. wereb. war | 2. a. farb. fur | 4. a. birdb. beard | 6. a. heartb. hurt | 8. a. stirb. steer | B. Work with a partner and take turns. Choose a word from part A and say it to your partner. Pronounce [r] and the vowel carefully so your partner can tell you which word you said.

3. Sounds and Spelling |
Listen to these pairs of words. If the bold vowels are the same in both words, write “S” in the blank. If they are different, write “D” in the blank. 1. furious, furriest _D_ 2. accord, award _____ 3. fierce, first _____ 4. journey, church _____ 5. beard, bird _____ | 6. weird, weary _____ 7. regard, reward _____ 8. heir, air _____ 9. birthday, worthy _____ 10. charming, warming _____ |

4. The Complex Sound In World |
Listen to the words and repeat them. Pronounce the bold sounds as two syllables: [ərəl]. 1. world 2. girl 3. curl 4. whirl 5. pearl | 6. twirl 7. the best in the world 8. the whole world 9. world leaders 10. worldwide | 11. World War II 12. curly hair 13. pearl earrings 14. girlfriend 15. girls’ dormitory |

5. First in the World |
These things hold first place in the world in their category. With a partner, decide what the category is for each thing. Then write a sentence using a superlative and ending with “in the world.” Practice reading the sentences to each other. Be sure to pronounce world carefully.
1. the Nile River
The Nile is the longest river in the world.________________________________________________________
2. the whale
________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. China
________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Mount Everest
________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. the cheetah
________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. the Pacific Ocean
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Appendix D: Some schwa /ə/ words used by the Japanese learner shelter [ʃeltəʳ] | for [fəʳ] | older [oʊldəʳ] | designed [dəˈzaɪnd] | specially [speʃəli] | independence [ɪndəˈpendəns] | to [tə] | and [ənd] | conveniently [kənˈviːnjəntli] | television [teləˌvɪʒn̩] |

Bibliography: Avery, P. & Ehrlich, S., (1992 ). Teaching American English Pronunciation. London: Oxford University Press. Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Pearson Education: New York Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D Fujii, I. (1999). Interlanguage Phonology of Japanese Speakers of English in South Wales. LiberPress: Tokyo Gibson, S (2008) Gilbert, J.B., (2005). Clear Speech: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in North American English. New York: Cambridge. Lane, L. (2005). Focus on Pronunciation 2. Pearson Education: New York Lane, L Lightbown, P. and N. Spada. (2006). How Languages are Learned. Oxford University Press: New York Munro, M Nespor, M., Shukla, M., & Mehler, J. (2011). ‘Stress-timed vs. Syllable-timed Languages’ Ohata, K., (2004). Phonological Differences between Japanese and English: Several Potential Problematic Areas of Pronunciation for Japanese ESL/EFL Learners Porter, D. (1998) MAELT Pedagogic Phonetics and Phonology. Reading: The University of Reading. Saito, K., (2007). The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English. The Linguistics Journal. 3 (3), pp.16-40 Saito, K Comprehensible Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of Japanese Learners of English. RELC Journal. 42 (3), pp.363-378 Setter, J (2003) MAELT Pedagogic Phonetics and Phonology Silverman, D. (2011). 'Schwa '. The Blackwell Companion to Phonology Volume I: General Issues and Segmental Phonology. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. pp.(628-642). Sugai, Y. (2009). Schwa Pronunciation by Japanese EFL Learners. University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis Wells, J.C., (2000). Overcoming phonetic interference. Journal of English Phonetics Society of Japan. 3, pp.9-21 Appendix A: Transcription Key using North American English