Age Changes in the Ability To Replicate Foreign Pronunciation and Intonation

Abstract

This study looked at the abilities of 5 - 15 year old monolingual English schoolchildren to replicate foreign pronunciation and intonation. Performance was judged after only one exposure and repetition. Ability to replicate pronunciation declined fairly steadily over the whole age-range studied. By contrast, ability to replicate intonation remained steadily good until 8, then dropped rapidly until 11. There was a slight, not wholly reliable improvement after 11, but, basically, 11-15 year-olds replicated intonation poorly. When given a sufficient amount of practice, all subjects tested could replicate intonation well; the number of trials required showed a rapid change from 8-11. The findings agree well with long-term studies of fluent L2 speakers, in which younger ages of acquisition are associated with better chances of a native pronunciation and intonation. Other studies of learners still acquiring an L2 have showed, however, that older learners have better chances of a native accent; an attempt is made to reconcile these findings with those of the present study.