Effects of L2 proficiency on the production of voiceless stops

Abstract

This study investigates how native speakers and L2 learners of English (L2 learners being native speakers of Korean) produce voiceless stops in English in the following phonological contexts: word-initial vs. -medial, stressed vs. unstressed, and when preceded by /s/. The study also examines the correlation between proficiency of L2 learners of English and the degree of aspiration (represented by VOT) in English voiceless stops. The speech of Korean L2 learners of English rated and categorized into 5 English proficiency levels in Genie Speech Corpus will be used. We will measure VOT of voiceless stops in the aforementioned conditions produced by 5 English speakers and each 5 Korean speakers per level. We expect that highly rated L2 speakers of English will produce longer VOT in stressed syllables than in unstressed syllables, as native speakers of English do. However, as the proficiency level gets lower, L2 speakers will produce it to a lesser degree than native speakers do, presenting a wide variety of VOT length.