Perceptual training of singleton and geminate stops in Japanese language by Korean learners

We aim to build up an effective perceptual training paradigm toward a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system for second language. This study investigated the effectiveness of the perceptual training on Korean-speaking learners of Japanese in the distinction between geminate and singleton stops of Japanese. The training consisted of identification of geminate and singleton stops with feedback. We investigated whether training improves the learners' identification of the geminate and singleton stops in Japanese. Moreover, we examined how perceptual training is affected by factors that influence speaking rate. Results were as follows. Participants who underwent perceptual training improved overall performance to a greater extent than untrained control participants. However, there was no significant difference between the group that was trained with three speaking rates and the group that was trained with normal rate only.