How native listeners understand Japanese spoken by non-native speakers

What is it about?

We asked what helps people understand Japanese when it is spoken by learners. 36 learners of Japanese completed two speaking tasks, one simple and one more complex. Experienced Japanese teachers listened and judged how easy each sample was to follow and how fluent it sounded. We also looked closely at features in the speech, such as pauses, clear sentence structure, and the use of small words that show how parts of a sentence fit together. Two patterns stood out. In simple tasks, fewer mistakes and fewer or shorter pauses made speech both easier to understand and more fluent. In complex tasks, listeners depended more on clear structure and those small connecting words to keep track of meaning. Pauses at the ends of sentence units were especially disruptive in Japanese, since key information often appears there. This matters for real world communication in class, at work, and in tests. Learners can be understood better by planning sentence endings, using connecting words clearly, and grouping ideas into organized segments. Teachers can focus feedback on how learners finish their phrases and how they signal relationships within a sentence.

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Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study shows that understanding and fluency depend on different features as task demands change. For scoring rubrics, include clear items such as: avoids long pauses at the ends of sentence units, uses connecting words to signal relationships, and maintains straightforward sentence structure when ideas are complex. Test designers can match scoring to task complexity, giving more weight to pause placement and sentence framing in harder prompts, which supports fairness. In teaching, practice that targets how sentences end, connecting words, and idea grouping should raise listener understanding and learner confidence. This can lead to better performance in classes and speaking tests.

Perspectives