DOI: 10.5176/2251-1865_CBP14.65
Authors: Wonil Choi, Jina Kim, Kichun Nam, and Yoonhyoung Lee
Abstract:
Experiments with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals and English monolinguals were conducted to examine whether the syllabification knowledge of the native language (Korean) affects recognition of printed words of the non-native language (English). Another purpose of this study was to explore whether syllables are the unit of process during Korean visual word recognition processing. Syllable length based on the Korean syllabification rule was manipulated and the participants were asked to perform a lexical decision task. The result of unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals showed that two-syllable words based on the Korean syllabification rule were responded to faster than three-syllable words, suggesting that Korean-English unbalanced bilinguals exploited their L1 phonological knowledge in recognizing English words. English monolinguals did not show any sign of differences between the two conditions. The results are discussed with respect to the role of phonological code during word recognition and L2 proficiency as well as the role of syllables in the Korean visual word processing.
Keywords: L1 Knowledge, L2 Word Recognition, Korean, Syllabification Rule
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