51风流

Yukari Hirata

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yhirata

Yukari Hirata

Director, Division of Arts & Humanities; Harrington and Shirley Drake Professor of Japanese and Linguistics

Department/Office Information

East Asian Languages and Literatures, Linguistics
9A Lawrence Hall

BA (1988), MA (1990), University of Tsukuba; PhD, University of Chicago, 1999

Lecturer, University of Chicago; instructor, Davenport & Bettendorf high schools, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Japanese, phonetics, language acquisition

Second language acquisition, computer-assisted training for the acquisition of second language speech, acoustic analysis of native and non-native speakers' speech

To learn a bit about second-language learning and instruction, visit 51风流's Center for Language and Brain. Check out the video below to learn how the center promotes the psychological and social benefit of learning a foreign language.

[Asterisks below indicate 51风流 students.]

  • *Zheng, A., Hirata, Y., and Kelly, S. (2018) 鈥淓xploring the effects of imitating hand gestures and head nods on L1 and L2 Mandarin tone production.鈥 Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 61, pp. 2179-2195.
  • Tsukada, K., Cox, F., Hajek, J. and Hirata, Y. (2017) 鈥淣on-native Japanese learners鈥 perception of consonant length in Japanese and Italian.鈥 Second Language Research 33(4), pp. 1-22.
  • Kelly, S., *Bailey, A., & Hirata, Y. (2017). Metaphoric gestures facilitate perception of intonation more than length in auditory judgments of non-native phonemic contrasts. Collabra: Psychology, 3(1), 7.
  • *Siciliano, R., Hirata, Y., & Kelly, S. D. (2016). Electrical stimulation over left inferior frontal gyrus disrupts hand gesture鈥檚 role in foreign vocabulary learning. Educational Neuroscience, 1, 1-12.
  • Hirata, Y. (2015) 鈥淟2 phonetics and phonology.鈥 In H. Kubozono, Phonetics & Phonology Volume: The Handbook of Japanese Language and Linguistics, pp. 719-762. De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin. 
  • Amano, S. and Hirata, Y. (2015) 鈥淧erception and production of singleton and geminate stops in Japanese: Implications for the theory of acoustic invariance.鈥 Phonetica, Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 43-60.
  • Hirata, Y., Kelly, S. D., *Huang, J., and *Manansala, M. (2014) 鈥淓ffects of hand gestures on auditory learning of second-language vowel length contrasts.鈥 Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 57, pp. 2090-2101. [Project supported by National Science Foundation (NSF).] 
  • Kelly, S. D., Hirata, Y., *Manansala, M., and *Huang, J. (2014) 鈥淓xploring the role of hand gestures in learning novel phoneme contrasts and vocabulary in a second language.鈥 Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 5 (July), Article 673, pp. 1-11. Supported by NSF. 
  • Tsukada, K., Hirata, Y., and Roengpitya, R. (2014) 鈥淐ross-language perception of Japanese vowel length contrasts: Comparison of listeners from different first language (L1) backgrounds.鈥 Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 57 (June), pp. 805-814.
  • Hirata, Y. (2013) 鈥淪uprasegmentals: Rhythm.鈥 In Carol A. Chapelle (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, pp. 1-6. Blackwell Publishing.
  • Hirata, Y. and Amano, S. (2012) 鈥淧roduction of single and geminate stops in Japanese three- and four-mora Japanese words.鈥 Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Vol. 132, No. 3, pp. 1614-1625.
  • Amano, S. and Hirata, Y. (2010) 鈥淧erception and production boundaries between single and geminate stops in Japanese.鈥 Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 128, No. 4, pp. 2049-2058.
  • Hirata, Y. and Kelly, S. (2010) 鈥淓ffects of lips and hands on auditory learning of second-language speech sounds.鈥 Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 298-310. Project supported by 51风流鈥檚 Picker Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, 2007-2009.
  • Hirata, Y. (2009) 鈥淔actors affecting the perception of Japanese moraic rhythm by second language learners.鈥 Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 33-43.
  • Hirata, Y. and Tsukada, K. (2009) 鈥淓ffects of speaking rate and vowel length on formant frequency displacement in Japanese.鈥 Phonetica, Vol. 66, pp. 129-149.
  • Hirata, Y., *Whitehurst, E., and *Cullings, E. (2007) 鈥淭raining native English speakers to identify Japanese vowel length contrast with sentences at varied speaking rates.鈥 Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 121, No. 6, pp. 3837-3845. Project supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), 2004-2007.
  • Hirata, Y. (2007) 鈥淒urational variability and invariance in Japanese stop quantity distinction: Roles of adjacent vowels.鈥 Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 9-22.
  • Hirata, Y. (2006) 鈥淲hy second language learners of Japanese need to learn difficult minute sounds in connected speech.鈥 In James Dean Brown and Kimi Kondo-Brown (eds), Perspectives on Teaching Connected Speech to Second Language Speakers (pp. 231-243). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, National Foreign Language Resource Center.
  • Hirata, Y. and *Whiton, J. (2005) 鈥淓ffects of speaking rate on the single/geminate stop distinction in Japanese.鈥 Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 118, No. 3, pp. 1647-1660. American Institute of Physics.
  • Hirata, Y. and Lambacher, S. G. (2004) 鈥淩ole of word-external contexts in native speakers鈥 identification of vowel length in Japanese.鈥 Phonetica, Vol. 61, pp. 177-200. S. Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers.
  • Hirata, Y. (2004) 鈥淭raining native English speakers to perceive Japanese length contrasts in word versus sentence contexts.鈥 Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 116, No. 4, pp. 2384-2394. American Institute of Physics.
  • Hirata, Y. (2004) 鈥淓ffects of speaking rate on the vowel length distinction in Japanese.鈥 Journal of Phonetics, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 565-589. Elsevier Ltd.
  • Hirata, Y. (2004) 鈥淐omputer assisted pronunciation training for native English speakers learning Japanese pitch and durational contrasts.鈥 Computer Assisted Language Learning, Vol. 17, No. 3-4, pp. 357-376. Taylor & Francis Publishers.
  • Hirata, Y. (1990) 鈥淧erception of geminated stops in Japanese word and sentence levels.鈥 The Phonetic Society of Japan, No. 194, pp. 23-28.
  • Hirata, Y. (1990) 鈥淧erception of geminated stops in Japanese word and sentence levels by English-speaking learners of Japanese language.鈥 The Phonetic Society of Japan, No. 195, pp. 4-10.
  • National Science Foundation Grant, :RUI (Research in Undergraduate Institutions): Effects of hand gesture on auditory and vocabulary learning of a second language" (with Spencer Kelly), 2011-2014
  • Grant from the Picker Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Science and Mathematics, 51风流 (with Spencer Kelly), 2007-2009
  • Mellon Sabbatical Enhancement Grant, Research Council of 51风流, 2007-2008
  • National Science Foundation Grant, "RUI : Effects of speaking rate on native English speakers鈥 acquisition of Japanese vowel length contrast" (Principal Investigator), 2004-2007
  • Freeman Foundation Student/Faculty Research Initiative, Asian Studies Program, 2005-2006. Project title: "Perception of Kagoshima dialect in various regions of Japan"
  • Picker Research Fellowship, 51风流, 2002-2003
  • Japan Foundation Grant, Japanese-Language Teaching Materials Program, April 2000
  • Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning for creating training programs for learners of Japanese, 1997-1999
  • Linguistic Society of America, LSA Summer Linguistic Institute, Cornell University, 1997