This volume is an investigation into second language (L2) phonology. The subject of Toda's study is the development of the syllable timing system of Japanese by learners who are native speakers of English. Toda points out that acquiring a L2 phonology involves more than producing the language without an accent. It is also necessary to develop a system of representations and rules that will govern language use. English and Japanese differ in that while English relies on stress to determine syllable weight, Japanese uses time. This study investigates the extent to which learners of Japanese as a L2 have acquired that aspect of the Japanese syllable and makes use of both perception and production tasks. One of the assumptions of this study—an assumption founded on previous studies in L2 phonology—is that perception and production are interrelated, but that they are not mirror images of one another.

The results of the study were consistent with other studies in L2 phonology. In both perception and production, advanced learners have interlanguages that are more nativelike than beginners, although they are still not native in interesting ways. In the case of perception, the establishment of an accurate perceptual target seems to be a key factor for acquisition. In production, Toda found that there was so much individual difference among participants that individual classroom instruction is necessary to improve pronunciation.

Toda's work represents a research paradigm in L2 phonology that makes use of objective means of data collection and analysis. Participants in the study responded to acoustically manipulated audio tokens for the perception task. This kind of manipulation means that stimuli could be carefully controlled. The production task required participants to read aloud a word list. Recordings of these utterances were analyzed with computer software and were not filtered through the phonological system of raters. This research approach holds promise and could be used to explore many other aspects of L2 phonology.