Native speakers and Korean-speaking advanced learners of English show similar discrimination of English prosodic contours

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2006-11, Vol.120 (5_Supplement), p.3175-3176
• Main Authors: Hwang, Hyekyung, Schafer, Amy J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4787954

Previous studies of native versus non-native perceivers argue that phonology can shape perception (e.g., Huang, 2001; Hume et al., 1999). The phonological inventory of prosodic phrasing contours differs between Korean and English. Phonologically, Korean accentual phrases have final rises (within intonation phrases), although this varies at the phonetic level, while English intermediate phrases (ips) can end in falling, rising, or level contours. Previous work has suggested that advanced learners (L2ers) use ips markedly less effectively than native speakers (L1ers) to recover English syntactic structure (Hwang and Schafer, 2005). This study investigated whether that is due to perceptual differences. L1ers and L2ers listened to pairs of phrases in an AX task that crossed boundary strength (same versus different size) with contour: rising (L*L*H-) versus level (L*L*L- or L*L*) or falling (H*H*L-) versus level (H*H*H- or H*H*). Little variation was found between L1ers’ and L2ers’ discrimination, and L2ers’ discrimination patterns correlated highly with L1ers’ (r=0.966). For both groups a falling-level contrast was more salient than a rising-level contrast (in the context tested) and boundary strength contrasts were more difficult than contour contrasts. The results suggest that the L2ers’ poor use of ips in comprehension is likely due to difficulty with prosody-syntax mappings.