The research team at Toyohashi University of Technology, Information and Intelligent Engineering, Electronics Sentanyugo Research Institute has developed a new method to objectively estimate the difference in the ability to distinguish between L and R in English, which is considered difficult for Japanese people, from the pupillary reaction. bottom.
According to Toyohashi University of Technology, the pupil is known to reflect various cognitive situations.The research team focused on the reaction that the pupil dilates due to the difference in sound, and tried to estimate the ability to distinguish between L and R in English.
When we occasionally mixed words containing R such as Right between words containing L such as Light that were played continuously, and investigated how the pupils of the experimental participants reacted, we divided them into a group with high ability to distinguish and a group with low ability. It was found that the higher population showed a larger pupillary response.
The pupillary reaction reflects the result of the English listening ability performed in advance with high accuracy, and the research team says that the ability can be estimated only by the pupillary reaction.
Distinguishing sounds that do not exist in the native language is an obstacle to learning when learning English by Japanese speakers, including learning Chinese by English speakers.In particular, Japanese people are not good at distinguishing between L and R, which has become a major obstacle to promoting efficient English learning.
The research team hopes that the research results will support the construction of a system for efficiently learning the distinction between L and R, and that the language acquisition status can be estimated without a response, which will be useful for language learning for patients with motor and speech disorders. doing.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Pupil dilation reflects English / l // r / discrimination ability for Japanese learners of English: a pilot study
