The relation between the age of learning a second language (L2) and the degree of foreign accent

Abstract

A 1995 study by Flege, Munro, and MacKay [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 3125–3134 (1995)] examined the degree of perceived foreign accent in English sentences spoken by Italians whose ages of arrival (AOA) in North America ranged from 2 to 22 years. Two surprising findings were obtained: (1) A linear relation was found to exist between AOA and the degree of perceived foreigen accent; and (2) many of the native Italian subjects who began learning English as young children were found to have detectable foreign accents. To determine if these findings were generalizable, a comparable population of native Korean subjects was examined. English sentences spoken by 240 Koreans and 24 native English (NE) controls were rated for degree of foreign accent by ten native English-speaking listeners. As in the earlier study, a linear relation was found to exist between AOA and degree of accent; and sentences spoken by Koreans who arrived in the United States as young children received significantly lower ratings than those spoken by the NE controls. It appeared, however, that the native Korean subjects generally had stronger foreign accents than did the native Italians subjects. Possible explanations for this cross-language difference will be discussed. [Work supported by NIH.]