Articulation strategies for English liquids used by Japanese speakers

This study examines the tongue shapes used by Japanese speakers to produce the English liquids/r/ and /l/. Four native Japanese speakers of varying levels of English acquisition and one North American English speaker were recorded both acoustically and with Electromagnetic Articulography. Seven distinct articulation strategies were identified. Results indicate that the least advanced speaker uses a single articulation strategy for both sounds. Intermediate speakers used a wide range of articulations, while the most advanced non-native speaker relied on a single strategy for each sound.