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This paper examined whether a younger starting age of formal instruction on a foreign language is beneficial in expanding circle countries. An experimental study was designed to examine to what extent the five varieties of English language teachers are intelligible to Japanese- (JSLs) and Korean-speaking language learners (KSLs), who have different starting ages of formal English education. First, 132 JSLs and 214 KSLs participated in a listening test where the accents of audio stimuli were varied. The results showed significant differences in the listening test scores between the two groups of learners and among the five varieties of English. It was found that KSLs who started learning English language at an early onset demonstrated proficient listening performance. These findings provide support for the premise that "younger is better" in development and persistence of L2 sound identification. At the same time, both JSLs and KSLs demonstrated sensitivity to input varieties of English. This highlights the importance of exposing students in the classroom to various English accents that may encounter in real-world situations.

This paper examined whether a younger starting age of formal instruction on a foreign language is beneficial in expanding circle countries. An experimental study was designed to examine to what extent the five varieties of English language teachers are intelligible to Japanese-(JSLs) and Korean-speaking language learners (KSLs), who have different starting ages of formal English education. First, 132 JSLs and 214 KSLs participated in a listening test where the accents of audio stimuli were varied. The results showed significant differences in the listening test scores between the two groups of learners and among the five varieties of English. It was found that KSLs who started learning English language at an early onset demonstrated proficient listening performance. These findings provide support for the premise that "younger is better" in development and persistence of L2 sound identification. At the same time, both JSLs and KSLs demonstrated sensitivity to input varieties of English. This highlights the importance of exposing students in the classroom to various English accents that may encounter in real-world situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated Korean-accented English (KoE) intelligibility and conducted experiments in Korea, Japan, and the USA to test the benefits of listener's familiarity and identify the key phonological features of KoE. In the experiments, the participants were asked to transcribe the target (KoE) of 100 English statements each containing a target word representing one of the nine features. The transcription data were administered to four groups, depending upon the degree of KoE familiarity (length of exposure). The results indicated that KoE was most intelligible to native English speakers with lower familiarity and least intelligible to the Japanese participants with low KoE familiarity. Although the listeners' familiarity did not necessarily either facilitate or impede the intelligibility of KoE, the listeners with higher familiarity with KoE tended to recognize the voiced consonants of KoE better. The findings also indicated which KoE characteristics affected the overall intelligibility level, suggesting ways to prioritize KoE features in English language learning in Korean classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intelligibility and attitude towards four English varieties to Korean-speaking learners (KSLs) of English, who have been exposed mainly to General American (or Korean-accented English) in their English language learning classrooms throughout the primary and secondary schools. A total of 105 Korean undergraduate students listened to a recording in one of the four accents (General American, British, Australian, and Korean-accented English) and completed an intelligibility test followed by a questionnaire survey on attitudes. Analysis revealed that British English was most intelligible to KSLs among four varieties whereas that of Australian was least intelligible. Attitudes toward an English variety did not exert a strong force that may contribute to the level of intelligibility. The findings also showed at which phonological features identified KSLs were most sensitive to intelligibility differences. We conclude that the more exposed English variety to KSLs, the more favorable attitudes can be formed, but is not necessarily intelligible. What the findings demonstrate is that attitudes are not the best explanation of intelligibility and call for improvement in ways of directing KSLs' attention to some phonological features in a learnability perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]