Cross-directional Development of Prosody

Abstract

This study examined L2 cross-directional development on the production of prosody features such as fundamental frequency range, speech rate, duration in the boundary word, and declination tiltof intonation. L2 learners of native Korean and English speakers with different levels were compared and analyzed. It was expected that L2 learners would have suprasegmental features more similar to native L1 speakers by the effect of longer immersion, while the variationin L2 acquisition could be found by the effect of background language. Two experiments for Korean learners of English and English learners of Korean were carried out to check the hypothesis. In the first experiment for Korean learners of English, thirty subjects in three groups joined. Also, another experiment was designed for English learners of Korean, in which thirty subjects in three took part. The results showed that L2 longer-immersed groups exerted the similar features of L1 native speakers. As we expected, the direction of L2 development, however, was different. That is, Korean immersed group of English was more native-like by having a wider F0 range, and a comparatively longer duration for the final boundary word, as well as a steeper F0 declination tilt. On the contrary, English immersed group of Korean followed more Korean-like features: a narrower F0 range, and a comparatively longer duration for the final-sentence word, as well as a gentle F0 slope of declination tilt. As a result, both groups have features withsimilar and different patterns at the same time. The similar features are realized in fast speech rate and longer duration in sentence-final words, while the contrastive features are found in F0 range and declination tilt. The result suggests that L2 development is decided by both factors: L1 background language and universal L2 developmental features.