Vowel duration in English as a second language among Javanese learners

How Javanese (L1) learners of English (L2) produce durational features of vowels has received increasing interest in the study of second language acquisition because the vowel systems are very disparate. The present production experiment attempts to shed light on the interference by Javanese (L1) on English vowel production (L2). The results are discussed with respect to differences in the vowel systems of English and Javanese. It was found that speech duration of native English speakers is significantly different from Javanese learners of English. Specifically, Javanese learners of English mispronounce all English vowels, both long and short, and fail to produce target L2 vowels. The results are discussed with respect to two hypotheses of L1 interference in second language learning.