Language-Specific Cue Weighting Effects in the Identification of the Korean Voiceless Stops by English-Speaking L2 Learners of Korean

Abstract

The current study investigates to what extend the acoustic properties of the native language (L1) influence the identification of a new phonemic contrast in a second language (L2). Considering that English only has two voiceless stops (e.g., [p] and [ph]), this study examines what acoustic cues English-speaking L2 learners of Korean use in categorizing the three-way voiceless stops in Korean (e.g., [p], [p’], and [ph]). 30 English-speaking L2 learners of Korean completed a lexical identification task, in which VOT and F0 were orthogonally manipulated. The results revealed that learners primarily use VOT, but they switch to use also F0 as their proficiency in Korean increases.