Processing Novel Phonological Structures in L2 Emergent Readers

This study investigated the phonological awareness of two groups of eighty-six Korean EFL/ESL kindergarteners in terms of semivowel placement differences between Korean and English and moreover, examined the relationship of their phonological representations to their vocabulary knowledge across the two languages. Children were assessed in Korean/English on an experimental task of production of semivowels (i.e., /j/ and /w/) in real/non-real words spoken to them and a test of lexical knowledge. Additionally, one group of ten monolingual English kindergarteners as a reference group was tested only in English. Results showed that Korean EFL children had a tendency to consider Korean GV structure as a cohesive unit and to regard English VG structure as two separate units. Their phonological representations across the two languages were highly related to Korean lexical knowledge. On the other hand, Korean ESL children tended to think of Korean GV structure as a cohesive unit, largely associated with Korean lexical knowledge and English VG structure as a cohesive unit, closely linked to English lexical knowledge. English monolinguals showed the same tendency to regard VG structure as a cohesive unit in English as did the Korean ESL children. These findings suggest the availability of language-specific phonological awareness, recognizing interlanguage phonologies in the acquisition of L2 phonological awareness and the potential importance of L2 vocabulary development in prompting L2 phonological awareness.