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Using Haiku as Mini Pronunciation Lessons to Enhance Awareness, Perception, and Production of Mora Timing and Special Moras in Japanese as an Second Language

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Abstract

Haiku are a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku adapted into English consist of 17 syllables divided into three lines of 5-7-5 syllables. By contrast, haiku in Japanese have 17 moras in three lines of 5-7-5 moras. Moras or also [ha-kɯ̥ ] beat (拍) in Japanese are timing units of approximately equal lengths (Tsujimura, 2014). Moras are smaller than or equal in length to syllables. For example, pocketmonster (Pokémon) in Japanese is nine moras [po-ke-t-to-mo-n-sɯ̥ -ta-a] but four syllables in English. Moras are perceptually salient contrasting lexicon, e.g., vowel or consonant length (i.e., geminates):[to-ke-e] watch, [to-o-ke-e] statistics, [to-k-ke-e] preferential treatment. Moras are not perceived and produced by first and second language speakers in the same manner (vowel length, Dupoux et al.,1999). Segmental length differs between the two groups (Han, 1992). Fortunately, exposure/training positively impacts L2 performance (Hardison & Motohashi-Saigo, 2010). Haiku are an ideal Japanese counterpart to jazz chants (Graham, 1978) to enhance awareness (cf., noticing, Schmidt, 1990) and thereby, perception/production of mora timing. Their brevity allows focused listening, production practice, and targeted assessment. Haiku are scaffolded by pre- and post-activities: short explanations and controlled-guided-communicative practice (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010) using traditional Japanese word games, in-class/recorded recitations, information gaps, composition of original haiku, and more.

How to Cite: Schaefer, V., & Ochiai, K. (2022). Using haiku as mini pronunciation lessons to enhance awareness, perception, and production of mora timing and special moras in Japanese as a second language. In J. Levis & A. Guskaroska (eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, held June 2021 virtually at Brock University, St.Catharines, ON. https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.13360