{"pk":7156,"title":"Grammar, Pronunciation, or Something Else? Native Japanese Speakers’ Judgments of “Native-Like” Speech","subtitle":null,"abstract":"This paper explores speech factors that influence native Japanese speakers’ perceptions of “native-like” speech. The conventional criterion of “native-like” proficiency has focused on grammar or pronunciation, which researchers recognize as important. This paper challenges this top-down discussion of “native-likeness” and examines the online (while listening) and offline (after listening) perceptions of 108 native Japanese speakers who are not academic researchers in a multi-dimensional way, in order to investigate (1) what factor(s) contribute to perceptions of “native-like” speech? and (2) For linguistically lay people, what factors determine “native-like” speech?\n \nThe methods of analysis used were factor analysis and correlations. My analysis of online perceptions of “native-likeness” is consistent with prior research that highlights grammar and pronunciation as the most important and noticeable features of non-native speakers’ speech. However, my analysis of offline perceptions reveals the significance of interaction-related factors, suggesting that grammar and pronunciation are less influential on native speakers’ holistic judgment of “native-like” speech. From these results, I propose two types of unnaturalness: overt and covert, the latter of which is illustrated to have a profound effect on native speakers’ overall impressions of non-native speakers’ speech. In conclusion, this paper highlights a possible disagreement between academic and lay perspectives with implications for teaching that places more emphasis on interaction than on accuracy for L2 learners.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"Native-like speech, Fluency, Second Language Acquisition, Native speakers' perceptions, L2 (second language) learners of Japanese"}],"section":"Conference Proceedings","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50w3991n","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Mayumi","middle_name":"","last_name":"Ajioka","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California, Los Angeles","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2011-10-28T01:04:07Z","date_accepted":"2011-10-28T01:04:07Z","date_published":"2011-10-28T01:39:15Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ial/article/7156/galley/4280/download/"},{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ial/article/7156/galley/4281/download/"}]}