Age Effects on the Acquisition of L2 Vowels in an FL Context

• Published in: English Language Teaching Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 83 - 102
• Main Author: Park Miae
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 팬코리아영어교육학회 01.12.2017
• Subjects: 영어와문학
• ISSN: 1226-6566; 2671-9460
• DOI: 10.17936/pkelt.2017.29.4.004

This study attempts to determine whether the earlier learners begin learning an L2, the less likely they are to perceive the L2 sounds as instances of a single L1 sound category and whether the L2 learners' ability to identify L1-L2 sound differences predicts the accurate perception of the L2 sounds, as the Interaction Hypothesis (IH) proposes. For these, a Korean-English vowel identification task and an English vowel perception task were conducted to 36 Korean children and 36 Korean adults who had learned English in a foreign language context. The results of the Korean-English vowel identification task provided evidence for the IH in part in that the earlier they begin learning English, the less likely Korean vowels are to mask Korean-English vowel differences, although with age, age-of-onset effects on the identification of L1-L2 vowel differences decrease. It was also revealed that the Korean-English vowel identification and the relationship of English learners' ability to detect Korean-English vowel differences with the perception of English vowels varied more significantly in accordance with the participants' length of English education than their age of the onset of English learning. The children and the adults, however, exhibited similar patterns in that their Korean-English vowel identification and English vowel perception were mediated byte Korean vowel system and phonological processes. Based on the results of this study, pedagogical implications were suggested. KCI Citation Count: 4