Can tongue twisters help with Japanese accent reduction

Tongue twisters can be a helpful tool for Japanese accent reduction. They are designed to challenge pronunciation and improve articulatory agility, which can assist learners in mastering difficult sounds and contrasts in Japanese or other languages. Research and educational methodologies indicate that using tongue twisters can improve pronunciation skills, particularly in difficult consonants and vowels, by training the tongue and mouth muscles to form sounds more accurately and fluently. This can directly contribute to reducing the foreign accent in Japanese speech or improving pronunciation of particular Japanese sounds. ^{1, 2, 3}

Specifically, tongue twisters target tricky phonetic elements and can train learners to overcome habitual pronunciation patterns that contribute to a foreign accent. This practice aligns well with accent reduction goals, as repeated focused articulation enhances motor control and sound discrimination.

Therefore, using tongue twisters as part of a broader pronunciation training regimen can be beneficial for learners aiming to reduce a Japanese accent or improve Japanese pronunciation. ^{2, 3}

References

• Reducing Accent in English -What will Native Japanese Speakers Benefit from Most?

• THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TONGUE TWISTERS TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO PRONOUNCE FRICATIVE CONSONANTS AND LONG VOWELS

• Tongue movement kinematics in long and short Japanese consonants.

• Can the degree of the foreign accent be reduced

• Effects of Pronunciation Practice System Based on Personalized CG Animations of Mouth Movement Model

• PANCETTA: Phoneme Aware Neural Completion to Elicit Tongue Twisters Automatically

• Neural mechanisms of foreign accent syndrome: Lesion and network analysis

• TwistList: Resources and Baselines for Tongue Twister Generation

• Polyphone disambiguation and accent prediction using pre-trained language models in Japanese TTS front-end

• Task-Specific Lingual Dystonia During Japanese Religious Services

• Some Issues In Japanese Accent

• Nihongo Speech Trainer: A Pronunciation Training System for Japanese Sounds

• Japanese Accent Pronunciation Error by Japanese Learners in Elementary and Intermediate Level

• Durational Evidence That Tokyo Japanese Vowel Devoicing Is Not Gradient Reduction

• More foreign-accented but more comprehensible: Attrition and amelioration of L1 speech in proficient L2 learners

• The Utilization of the “Tsutaeru Hatsuon” Online Media in Learning Japanese Accents and Intonations

• Improving Japanese English pronunciation with speech recognition and feed-back system

• Foreign accent conversion in computer assisted pronunciation training