Perception of Mora Timing by English learners of Japanese

English learners of Japanese at two levels of proficiency in L2 were tested for their ability to perceive moraic contrasts in Japanese vowels (long vs short) and stop consonants (single vs geminate) under listening conditions where the speaker and the rate of speech varied unpredictably on a short carrier phrase (Sore wa ___ desu.). The aim was to assess the acquisition of moraic timing by second language learners and the strategies they use for temporal normalization in the face of speech rate and speaker variation. Learners performance was compared with that of native speakers of Japanese, Results indicated that advanced learners were able to normalize speech rate, while beginners failed to do so and perceived moraic contrasts reliably only in slow speech. However, perception of moraic timing contrasts of consonants in slow speech was found to be difficult even for advanced learners.