Syllable Counting and Mora Units in Speech Perception

This paper represents a preliminary study in a longer-range project in which rhythm is considered a central organizing factor in speech perception and production. Our hypothesis is that the ability to perceive the rhythm-bearing unit of L2 (second language) substantially improves the L1 (first language) listener's ability to perceive the spoken L2 language. The preliminary study here reports on an initial investigation of a corollary hypothesis: Japanese listeners have difficulty perceiving the basic rhythm-bearing units of English.