Publication Date
Winter 2009
School
School of Communication
Major
TESL
Primary Subject Area
Language, Linguistics
Recommended Citation
Lovett, Johannah, "The Effect of Markedness on Korean L2 Learners’ Pronunciation of the English /l/ and /r/" (2009). Senior Honors Theses. 107.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/107
Abstract
The complex process of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a challenge for linguists to explain. One perspective, the Markedness Principle, states that certain language characteristics are not as common cross-linguistically. For example, the coda position in syllables occurs less universally in languages. Linking this with the well-known difficulty that native Korean speakers typically face with the English phonemes /l/ and /r/, the hypothesis states that pronouncing these sounds is most challenging in the coda. An experiment is designed to embed nonsense words containing /l/ and /r/ in a story, which is recorded as the subjects read aloud. The hypothesis is borne out, leading to the suggestion of helpful pedagogical strategies for those who teach English to speakers of other languages.
