4.5.2 Feedback Instruction for Vowels

Vowel instruction for the phoneme /a/ for learner A is presented in Figure 4.6. Using the vowel diagram based on the loci, we analyzed how the phonemes /a/ of learner A were articulated, which are included in the P-set, totally 15 samples: ichigatsu, kagayaku, gakusei, aNshiN, tazuneru, katazukeru, chikazuku, shourai, hogaraka, yakusoku. The loci of five basic vowels are derived from Figure 4.2. From Figure 4.6, we realize that loci take shape between /a/ and /u/, which means that he needs to open his jaw more widely when pronouncing /a/ on the whole. The vowel diagram works well to give him feedback to correct his misarticulation.