The impact of different L1 and L2 learning experience in the acquisition of L1 phonological processes

•Different L1 and L2 learning experience influenced the acquisition of L1 phonological processes.•The amount of L1 use was related to the development of L1 phonological processes.•Phonological processes with more phonological variants were more difficult to acquire than those with less variants.•Different learning paths were found for the acquisition of different obligatory phonological processes.•The different learning path was partly due to the inherent properties each process may have.

Previous studies on the effect of L2 experience on L1 acquisition mostly focused on the segmental level without taking into consideration phonological processes. In particular, whether learners' different L1 and L2 learning experience affects their acquisition of L1 phonological processes has not been much explored. This study investigated the impact of different L1 Korean-L2 English learning experience in the acquisition of L1 phonological processes (t-palatalization and h-merger) among three groups of Korean children (mean age: 9): 20 Korean monolingual, 21 Returnee and 19 ESL children. In production the children read orthographically presented stimuli embedded in sentences. In perception both standard (target-appropriate) and spelling-based non-standard variant (target-inappropriate) pronunciations of target words were aurally presented in sentential contexts and the children judged the target appropriateness. The results of the production and perception tests indicated the effect of different L1 and L2 learning experience in the acquisition of L1 phonological processes due to the monolingual and Returnee children significantly outperforming the ESL children either in production or in perception. However, the Returnees outperformed the monolingual children on h-merger in perception, which may partly be accounted for by the Returnees' bilingual benefits and re-exposure to their L1. An asymmetry between t-palatalization and h-merger was also found as all the children performed significantly better on h-merger than on t-palatalization. The asymmetry between the two phonological processes was accounted for in terms of variation and the intrinsic nature of the phonological processes.