The effect of age of acquisition and second‐language experience on prosody and segments: A cross‐sectional study of Korean bilinguals’ English and Korean production.

Abstract

The effect of age of acquisition and amount of experience on the segmental and prosodic production of the first‐(L1) and second‐language (L2) was investigated. Forty Korean learners of English varying in age (adult versus child) and amount of experience (6 months versus 6 years) as well as 20 age‐matched native English speaking adults and children participated. In the segmental domain, spectral quality and duration of eight English and seven Korean vowels were compared. In order to examine prosodic aspects of production, English words containing stressed and unstressed syllables and Korean four‐syllable phrases were elicited. Results for adult groups revealed that the production of Korean vowels, but not English vowels, was influenced by the L2 experience, indicating plasticity in the L1. For prosody, small effects of experience on English production were found. As for the children, production of both English and Korean vowels and prosody varied by group. The 6‐year‐experience child group was native‐like in English vowels but not in unstressed syllables. The results suggest that there is a dynamic interaction between L1 and L2 in segments as well as in prosody.