A Quantitative Investigation of Prator's Hierarchy of L2 Learning Difficulty in Relation to Segment-Level English Pronunciation Teaching Agendas for Adult EFL Learners

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the relationship between Prator's Hierarchy of L2 learning difficulty and segment-level pronunciation learning difficulties that were observed among Korean adult EFL learners in 2006. A total of 148 student participants at a college-level institute took part in an empirical study on the comparison between the effects of two different EFL pronunciation syllabi. Out of the 148, only 93 students yielded a complete set of pronunciation data, namely the pre- and post- test results of L2 sound identification and L2 word read-aloud tests. Two native English-speaking instructors of English and two non-native instructors of English each taught four 70-minute lectures to the participants. Based on the descriptive analysis, the participants showed identification accuracy results that generally affirmed the predictions suggested by Prator, while they showed somewhat puzzling results concerning their read-aloud accuracy scores. Two additional factors of L2 sound learning difficulty are suggested based on the results of the read-aloud tests: 1) the L1 orthographic system, which is relatively transparent compared to the L2 orthographic system, and 2) the phonological context in which a certain L2 sound occurs.