Kakeru Yazawa

Profile Information

Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
: Adjunct Researcher, Institute of Language and Speech Science, Waseda University

Degree: PhD(Mar, 2020, Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies, Waseda University)

Contact information: yazawa.kakeru.gbu.tsukuba.ac.jp
Researcher number: 50844023
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0528-6103
J-GLOBAL ID: 201901004020308720
Researcher ID: NIS-5390-2025
researchmap Member ID: B000352477

I'm a researcher in L2 phonetics and phonology (CV).

I offer research supervision in the following degree programs. If you wish to apply as a prospective student^1,2, please contact me.

Undergraduate: Major in Linguistics, College of Humanities, University of Tsukuba
Graduate: Subprogram in Linguistics, Degree Programs in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba

1 Admission to the MA and PhD programs requires passing the graduate entrance examination (written and oral).
2 For the MEXT Scholarship, please apply through the Embassy Recommendation instead of the University Recommendation.

Research Interests

Research Areas

Research History

Feb, 2026 - Present

Assistant Professor (Tenured), Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
Sep, 2021 - Present

Adjunct Lecturer, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University
Mar, 2021 - Present

Adjunct Researcher, Institute of Language and Speech Science, Waseda University
May, 2021 - Jan, 2026

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
Aug, 2025 - Aug, 2025

International Visiting Fellow, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University
Aug, 2020 - Mar, 2023

Adjunct Researcher, Laboratory for Language Development, RIKEN Center for Brain Science
Sep, 2020 - Mar, 2021

Assistant Professor (Non-Tenured), School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University
Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2021

Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Letters, Hosei University
Apr, 2019 - Aug, 2020

Research Associate, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University
Apr, 2018 - Mar, 2019

Research Fellow (DC2), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Jan, 2014 - Mar, 2019

Research Assistant, Laboratory for Language Development, RIKEN Brain Science Institute
Nov, 2017 - Mar, 2018

International Visiting Fellow, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University

Education

Apr, 2016 - Mar, 2020

PhD, Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies, Waseda University
Apr, 2014 - Mar, 2016

MA, Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies, Waseda Univeristy
Apr, 2010 - Mar, 2014

BA, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda Univeristy
Aug, 2011 - Aug, 2012

Visiting Student Certificate Program, University of Alberta

Committee Memberships

Mar, 2025 - Present

Scientific Committee, International Conference on Phonetic Variation: Diversity within and across Languages (ICPhoV)
Apr, 2022 - Mar, 2025

International Exchange Committee, The Phonetic Society of Japan
Apr, 2019 - Aug, 2019

Local Organizing Committee Member, New Sounds 2019

Awards

Nov, 2023

Young Faculty Encouragement Award (Dean's Award), Institutes of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba

Kakeru Yazawa
Oct, 2015

Best Student Oral Paper Award, Oriental COCOSDA 2015

Kakeru Yazawa
Mar, 2014

Excellent Senior Thesis Paper, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University

Kakeru Yazawa

Papers

The J-AESOP corpus: Design, application, and future directions of a Japanese-English bilingual speech corpus

Kakeru Yazawa, Takayuki Konishi, Mariko Kondo

Acoustical Science and Technology, 46(5) 553-563, Sep, 2025 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
A Bayesian approach to L2 fluency ratings by native and nonnative listeners

Kakeru Yazawa, Takayuki Konishi

Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, 106-110, Aug, 2025 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Combining phonetics and phonology in Lx acquisition using current theoretical models and probabilistic approaches: A response to Archibald

Kakeru Yazawa, Paola Escudero

Second Language Research, 41(3) 565-575, Jul, 2025 InvitedLead authorCorresponding author
Investigating L2 Japanese word-initial stop production by L1 Korean learners

Minn Kim, Kakeru Yazawa

Proceedings of the 38th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 58-63, Sep, 2024 Last author
Corpus-based investigation of English speakers’ production of Japanese lexically (un)accented words

Kakeru Yazawa, Hiroaki Hatano

Proceedings of the 38th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 64-69, Sep, 2024 Lead authorCorresponding author
More foreign-accented but more comprehensible: Attrition and amelioration of L1 speech in proficient L2 learners

Kakeru Yazawa, Takayuki Konishi, Rubén Pérez-Ramón, Mariko Kondo

F1000Research, 13(867) 1-17, Aug, 2024 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
NEW sounds can be easier to learn than SIMILAR sounds, but only when acoustic cues are FAMILIAR

Kakeru Yazawa

Tsukuba English Studies, 42 305-325, Feb, 2024 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Feature-driven new sound category formation: Computational implementation with the L2LP model and beyond

Kakeru Yazawa, James Whang, Mariko Kondo, Paola Escudero

Frontiers in Language Sciences, 2 1-19, Dec, 2023 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Australian English listeners’ perception of Japanese vowel length reveals underlying phonological knowledge

Kakeru Yazawa, James Whang, Paola Escudero

Frontiers in Psychology, 14 1-14, Oct, 2023 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
An evaluation of the phonetic balance of the Harvard-NGSL sentences

Kakeru Yazawa

Proceedings of the 37th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 108-113, Sep, 2023 Lead authorCorresponding author
Modeling a phonotactic approach to segment recovery: The case of Japanese high vowels

James Whang, Kakeru Yazawa

Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology, 29(2) 271-295, Sep, 2023 Peer-reviewedLast author
L2 proficiency predicts L1 accentedness and comprehensibility

Kakeru Yazawa, Rubén Pérez-Ramón, Mariko Kondo

Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2840-2844, Aug, 2023 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Spectral and temporal implementation of Japanese speakers’ English vowel categories: A corpus-based study

Kakeru Yazawa, Takayuki Konishi, James Whang, Paola Escudero, Mariko Kondo

Laboratory Phonology, 14(1) 1-33, Mar, 2023 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Annotating second language learner speech: Reflecting on the development of the J-AESOP corpus

Kakeru Yazawa

Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 26(3) 111-123, Dec, 2022 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Harvard-NGSL sentences for English learner speech corpora

Kakeru Yazawa

Proceedings of the 25th Oriental COCOSDA, 84-88, Nov, 2022 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
A comparison of rhythm metrics for L2 speech

Kakeru Yazawa, Mariko Kondo

Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Speech Prosody, 332-336, May, 2022 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Transfer of incomplete neutralization: A case of /ei/ and /ou/ in Japanese

Kakeru Yazawa

Second Language, 20 47-59, Apr, 2022 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Prosodic manifestation of question tags in Japanese speakers’ English

Kakeru Yazawa

Tsukuba English Studies, 40 41-50, Mar, 2022 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Investigating vowel productions with Japanese-English speech corpus

Kakeru Yazawa

Proceedings of Data Science in Collaboration, 5 9-18, Feb, 2022 InvitedLead authorCorresponding author
L1 phonetic drift in vowel production by Japanese learners of English

Kakeru Yazawa

Proceedings of the 35th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 113-118, Sep, 2021 Lead authorCorresponding author

Books and Other Publications

The Cambridge handbook of bilingual phonetics and phonology

Paola Escudero, Kakeru Yazawa (Role: Joint author, The Second Language Linguistic Perception model)

Cambridge University Press, Nov, 2024 (ISBN: 9781009098601) Peer-reviewed
The Wiley Blackwell companion to phonology, second edition

Paola Escudero, Laura Colantoni, Jeffrey Steele, Kakeru Yazawa (Role: Contributor, Second language phonology)

Wiley-Blackwell Peer-reviewed

Presentations

Beyond “L1” vs. “L2”: Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects

Kakeru Yazawa

MARCS Research Meeting, Aug 19, 2025 Invited
Corpus-based investigation of English speakers’ production of Japanese lexically (un)accented words

Kakeru Yazawa

The 38th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Sep 29, 2024
Patterns of misaccentuation of unaccented words in English speakers’ Japanese

Kakeru Yazawa

CorpusPhon, Jun 26, 2024
More foreign-accented but more comprehensible: Attrition and amelioration of L1 speech in proficient L2 learners

Kakeru Yazawa

Linguistics Colloquium at Seoul National University, Mar 29, 2024 Invited
Bidirectional influences between L1 accentedness/comprehensibility and L2 proficiency

Kakeru Yazawa

International Workshop on Speech Assessment and Native and Non-native Linguistic Variation: Trends and Methods, Oct 6, 2023 Invited
An evaluation of the phonetic balance of the Harvard-NGSL sentences

Kakeru Yazawa

The 37th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Sep 17, 2023
L2 proficiency predicts L1 accentedness and comprehensibility

Kakeru Yazawa

ICPhS 2023, Aug 9, 2023
Harvard-NGLS sentences for English learner speech corpora

Kakeru Yazawa

O-COCOSDA 2022, Nov 24, 2022
Investigating vowel productions with Japanese-English speech corpus

Kakeru Yazawa

DaSiC 5, Jan 20, 2022 Invited
L1 phonetic drift in vowel production by Japanese learners of English

Kakeru Yazawa

The 35th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Sep 26, 2021
Transfer of phonological neutralization: A case of /ei/ and /ou/ in Japanese

Kakeru Yazawa

J-SLA 2020, Mar 27, 2021
Transferred lengthening of /ei/ and /ou/ in Japanese speakers’ English

Kakeru Yazawa

The 34th General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Sep 27, 2020
A feature-based account of new L2 category formation

Kakeru Yazawa

New Sounds 2019, Sep 1, 2019
Acoustic characteristics of Japanese short and long vowels: Formant displacement effect revisited

Kakeru Yazawa

ICPhS 2019, Aug 6, 2019
Perception of Japanese vowel length by Australian English listeners

Kakeru Yazawa

ICPhS 2019, Aug 5, 2019
Phonemic and featural modeling of new L2 sound acquisition

Kakeru Yazawa

HISPhonCog 2019, May 24, 2019
Developmental paths of English high vowel production by Japanese speakers

Kakeru Yazawa

ICPEAL 17 - CLDC 9, Oct 19, 2018
Acquisition of English high front vowels /i:, I/ by native Japanese speakers

Kakeru Yazawa

The 32nd General Meeting of the Phonetic Society of Japan, Sep 15, 2018
Using the J-AESOP L2 English speech corpus: A case study of the acquisition of English /i:/-/I/ by Japanese speakers

Kakeru Yazawa

J-SLA 2018, Jun 16, 2018
Predicting Australian English speakers’ perception of unfamiliar Japanese vowels

Kakeru Yazawa

CoEDL Fest 2018, Feb 5, 2018

Teaching Experience

Apr, 2023 - Present

Studies in Foreign Language Education (University of Tsukuba)
Apr, 2022 - Present

Graduation Thesis (English Linguistics) (University of Tsukuba)
Apr, 2022 - Present

Studies in English Linguistics (University of Tsukuba)
Oct, 2021 - Present

Project Practice (University of Tsukuba)
Oct, 2021 - Present

Project Seminar (University of Tsukuba)
Oct, 2021 - Present

English Phonology and Morphology (University of Tsukuba)
Sep, 2020 - Present

First Year Seminar A (Waseda University)
Sep, 2020 - Present

First Year Seminar B (Waseda University)
Apr, 2024 - Mar, 2025

Thesis Writing in English Linguistics (University of Tsukuba)
Oct, 2022 - Mar, 2024

Phonetics and Phonology (Waseda University)
Apr, 2023 - Sep, 2023

Acoustics and Auditory Phonetics (Waseda University)
Apr, 2022 - Jun, 2022

First Year Seminar (University of Tsukuba)
Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2021

English Phonetics (Hosei University)
Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2021

Seminar in Linguistics (Hosei University)

Professional Memberships

Apr, 2024 - Present

Association for Laboratory Phonology
Jul, 2018 - Present

International Phonetic Association
Apr, 2017 - Present

The Japan Second Language Association
Apr, 2016 - Present

The Phonetic Society of Japan

Research Projects

Understanding the mastery of multiple languages and dialects

Discovery Projects, Australian Research Council, Aug, 2025 - Jul, 2028

Paola Escudero, Chloé Diskin-Holdaway, Kakeru Yazawa, Xiaoluan Liu
Building pre- and post-study abroad speech database of Japanese speakers' English

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2022 - Mar, 2027

Kakeru Yazawa
Research on the mechanisms of understanding speech in different varieties of English:focusing on Asian and African English

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2021 - Mar, 2025
Corpus-based investigation of L1 phonetic drift and L2 proficiency

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2024

Yazawa Kakeru
L2LP-based modeling of the perception of second language and foreign accented speech

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2018 - Mar, 2020

Kakeru Yazawa
Computational modeling of native and non-native perception of foreign-accented speech

JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Nov, 2017 - Mar, 2018

Kakeru Yazawa

Academic Activities

Tsukuba Empirical Linguistics and Language Sciences (TELLS) Student Workshop

Planning, management, etc., Panel moderator, session chair, etc.

Kakeru Yazawa; Yuichi Ono, Sep 11, 2025 - Sep 12, 2025
Tsukuba Global Science Week 2024 (Second Language Acquisition Research under East-Asian Native Speakers’ Context)

Planning, management, etc., Panel moderator, session chair, etc.

Yuichi Ono; Kakeru Yazawa, Oct 3, 2024
International Workshop on Phonetic and Phonological Processing and Learning

Planning, management, etc., Panel moderator, session chair, etc.

Kakeru Yazawa; Yuichi Ono, Dec 21, 2023
International Workshop on Recent Advancements in Phonetic and Phonological Research

Planning, management, etc., Panel moderator, session chair, etc.

Kakeru Yazawa; Yuichi Ono, Jan 20, 2022

Social Activities

Introduction to English Phonetics

Lecturer

Chiba Prefectural Naruto High School, Jul 16, 2024
Why study a foreign language in this era?

Lecturer

Kumamoto Prefectural Toryo High School, Dec 11, 2023