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Effects of word class differences on L2 pronunciation accuracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2002

GRACE H. YENI-KOMSHIAN ,
MEDINA ROBBINS  and
JAMES E. FLEGE
GRACE H. YENI-KOMSHIAN
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
MEDINA ROBBINS
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
JAMES E. FLEGE
Affiliation:
University of Alabama, Birmingham
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Abstract

This study examined the effect of word class (nouns vs. verbs) on L2 pronunciation accuracy of Korean–English bilinguals. The participants were 192 adult immigrants whose age of arrival (AOA) in the United States ranged from 6 to 23 years. Transcriptions of their productions of English sentences indicated that they were more accurate in pronouncing verbs than nouns. Similarly, the results of a grammaticality judgment test revealed that they were more accurate in detecting incorrect formulations of verbs than nouns. These effects were significant in late L2 learners (AOA 12–23). The results were interpreted to reflect the influence of the linguistic structure of Korean (where the verb is more prominent than the noun) on learning English as an L2.

Type
Research Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2001 , pp. 283 - 299
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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