earticle

영어

The study aims at examining the role of L1 background language and L2 proficiency level in acquiring the L2 fluency. For the purpose, we investigate acoustical changes of 5 suprasegmental cues by using parameters of the proficiency levels of Japanese and Chinese learners of Korean. Before the experiments, we predict that L2 learners with advanced levels of Korean and L1 background language approximated to the suprasegmental structure of Korean are more likely to acquire L2 Korean fluency. One hundred fifty two subjects with six groups ((Japanese, Mandarin Chinese) * (elementary, intermediate, advanced)) take part in the experiment with native Korean speakers as a control group. The results show that both parameters of the L1 background language and L2 proficiency levels have influence equally on the acquisition of the L2 Korean suprasegmentals. However, the extent is different. For example, the L1 effect decreased over the L2 proficiency levels; the advanced levels of both L1 groups acquired L2 Korean prosody in a similar extent. Also some acoustical cues trigger an uneven influence on Korean natives’ ratings for L2 Korean suprasegmentals; speech rate seems to be the most important cue, whereas the spectrum cues do not.