Perceiving L2 Phonological Contrasts: Korean and English Sibilants

Two perceptions of Korean and English sibilants by two different L2 groups were examined: the identification of Korean (KO) contrast /s-s*/ by American English (AE) learners of Korean and the identification of English (EN) contrast /s-ʃ/ by Korean ESL learners. The results of the first experiment showed that AE beginning learners of Korean poorly identified the Korean contrasts (with chance accuracy) and AE advanced learners of Korean showed perceptual improvement, but not as good as those of native speakers of Korean. However, the results of the second experiment showed that both Korean ESL beginning and advanced learners identified the English contrast with native-like accuracy. The conclusion is that L2 experience made a difference in perceptual improvement in L2 phonology acquisition. However, the contradictory results in terms of the dramatically different degrees of improvement may result from different phonetic similarity between L1 and L2 sounds and each sound of an L2 contrast.