/l/ Versus /1/
A second finding was that althoughJapanese EFL speakers substituted
the Japanese flap for both target /i/ and /1/, a significantly higher
percentage of substitutions occurred for target /1/ than for target /i/.
Knowing this, teachers might want to point out toJapanese students that
they tend to substitute their "Japanese r" more often for /1/ than for /i/.
Teachers might well focus on teaching /1/ first and reducing flap substitution for it, and then work on /i/ in a separate lesson if time
permits. Although eliminating the flap transfer will not guarantee that
the segments produced will be well-formed /i/s and /l/s, it will at least
alert the students to a substitution that is common for many of them.