An Analysis of Pronunciation Challenges for Japanese EFL Learners: A Case Study of Two Adult Japanese Learners of English

Abstract

This paper examines the pronunciation problems of Asian learners of English as a foreign language. It analyzes phonemic transcriptions of the oral performance of two adult Japanese EFL learners, reading a written dialogue text, using the Received Pronunciation model as a reference. Vowel sounds, intonation, and stress patterns were the areas the learners seemed to struggle with the most. The paper also proposes some pedagogical implications for teaching pronunciation to Asian EFL learners, taking into account the linguistic differences between their native languages and the English language. Keywords: English pronunciation, Received Pronunciation model, phonemic systems, intonation