Analysis of Japanese Students’ Persian Phonetic Error Based on Optimization Theory and Proposing Educational Solutions

Teaching the phonetic system of the target language is important in terms of the position and method of phonetic production in the sense that the phonetic characteristics of the mother tongue are included in learning a second / foreign language. The effect of mother tongue on second / foreign language learning is called language transfer. There are two types of language transfer: positive transfer and negative transfer. Positive transfer is related to the facilitative effects of language teaching / learning. In other words, in this type of transfer, the first language enhances the teaching / learning process of the second / foreign language. By contrast, the negative transfer which refers to the destructive effects of the first language on language teaching / learning. In this research, 621 minutes of Japanese language learners' speech production at the first level of a short-term education institute and study opportunities of Al-Hikma (a sub-branch of Al-Mustafa International University) were recorded and examined. An attempt has been made to examine the phonetic errors of Japanese students of Persian language from the point of view of contrastive linguistics, a strong version and in the framework of optimization theory, and to obtain the source of their phonetic errors. The method of this research is analytical-descriptive and field research. The data related to Japanese and Persian phonetic system were collected through a library research and with reference to reliable phonological sources. For each phonetic error, a table of data is provided and then one of the vocabularies is placed in the optimization table and the cause of its phonetic error is analyzed and investigated. The results indicate that the phonetic system of the Japanese language is effective in the learning of language learners and has a negative transfer. Finally, some guidelines for teaching and correcting learners’ mistakes are provided.