Bridging psycholinguistic research and L2 pedagogy: Implications for teaching orthographic and phonological awareness in English learners

Abstract

Recent psycholinguistic research has highlighted the influence of orthography on phonological perception and lexical access in second language (L2) learners. This study examines the impact of orthographic representations on English word recognition among Spanish- and Korean-speaking learners, focusing on how their native language (L1) phonological and orthographic systems shape their ability to distinguish between /b/ and /v/. The findings reveal that Spanish learners exhibit greater difficulty distinguishing between these sounds in orthographically mismatched conditions, while Korean learners rely on alternative phonemic substitutions. Based on these results, this paper explores pedagogical implications for pronunciation instruction, phoneme-grapheme mapping, and multimodal teaching strategies that minimize orthographic interference. Practical recommendations for curriculum design and classroom applications are provided to enhance L2 phonological development.