The Effect of L2 Input on Young Learners' Pronunciation Performance in English

Abstract

There is no dearth of studies on pronunciation problems of students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL); however, research on pronunciation problems of young learners is scarce. Therefore, to fill this research gap, the present quasiexperimental study aimed at investigating the effect of L2 input on the pronunciation performance of young learners in English. To this end, two groups of primary school learners were recruited as the study participants. Both groups were of the same age (10 years old), and they were all native speakers of Turkish. Group A's exposure to English was somewhat restricted since their education was exclusively in Turkish, while Group B received a great deal of input through an immersion program. Data were collected using a pictorial pronunciation test. The analysis of the data shows that Group B participants far outperformed Group A students. Everything being equal, this could be interpreted as the result of greater exposure Group B participants had to English through the immersion program they were following. Thus, it can be concluded that by increasing the amount of learners' input, language acquisition, in general, and pronunciation performance, in particular, can be facilitated.