Variations in Acquisition
There is some indication that Japanese speakers tend to improve more on the perception and production of /r/ than /l/.
Aoyama et al. (2004) conducted a longitudinal study that examined the perception and production of English /l/, /r/, and /w/ by adults and children who were native speakers of Japanese but living in the United States. Over time, the children improved more on English /r/ than English /l/.
Similarly, Guion et al. (2000) found that Japanese speakers who received training in distinguishing English sounds improved more on /r/ than on /l/. They suggest that English /l/ is perceived as more similar to Japanese /ɺ/ than English /r/ is, and hence it is harder for Japanese speakers to distinguish /ɾ/ from /l/ than /ɺ/ from /r/.
Kuzniak & Zapf (2004) found differences between the second and third formants in /r/ and /l/ of a native Japanese speaker and a native English speaker. The results showed that the Japanese speaker had a hard time producing an English-like third formant, especially that which is required to produce an /l/.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Speakers Learning R And L
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