A study concerning the influences of vocal sounds.

Abstract

In Tohoku Districts of Japan, there are many kinds of dialects. Especially the confusions of vocal sounds, for example, between “ki” and “chi”, or “e” and “i”, are well known. Among 1449 applicants for admission into Teachers' College (Eukushima Univ.) 45 persons caused the abovesaid confusions (“ki” “chi”) in the dictation tests last year(1954). They wrote KIKAKU for CHIKAKU. Here we want to divide these applicants into 2 groups, the Corrupted Group and the Normal Group. The success or failure for admission were determined by their synthetic results of testé and some other means. 600 were admitted into the College, only 9 included among them from the Corrnpted Troup. Thus we have the following contingency table. A COMPARISON OF THE APPLICANTS OF CORRUPTED AND NORMAL AS REGARDS THE RESULTS CF EXAMINATION. RESULTS CORRUPTION NORMAL TOTAL SUCCESS 9 591. 600 FAILURE 36 813 849 TOTAL 45 1404 1449 From this table we have %02 = 8. 772 as the value of X2 (%20. 01 < X20) So we must reject the' Hypothesis that their success and failure do not depend upon their corruption or normality. Then it is very clear that the dialect or corruption handicapped them. As to the members of Corrupted Group, they are only from particular regions-AIZU district and the northern part of Fukushima Prefecture, almost all parts of Miyagi Pref. and the southern half of Iwate Pref, but none from other districts. These regions coincide nearly to the dominion of the feudal Lord of Date. Referring to these results, I gave a Hearing Test this autumn to pupils of 2 schools in (293, 9 287) and 2 schools out (190, 176) of these regions. The latters are so to say as the control groups. Conclusion: 1) The confusion “ki” “chi” was only in Corrupted Group, and not, at all, in other regions. 2) This confusion disappears gradually as classes ascent, and faster in the pupils of higher marks in the same class. In those of lower marks such a confusion is not always diminished.(Thus I guess the confusion perhaps depends upon the sensory or conscious status of not yet differentiated.) 3) This confusion tends to disappear faster in female than in male pupils. © 1969, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.