Korean only has one contrastive approximant which is typically realized as l or ɾ. Conversely, the English approximants /l/ and /ɹ/ are contrastive. Previous research has found that this distinction in English can make it difficult for L1 Korean speakers learning English to distinguish the two approximants in perception. The present study investigates adult Korean speakers’ perception of English /l/ and /ɹ/ and how their perceptions change depending on where in the word the /l/ or /ɹ/ is occurring. L1 Korean speakers who have been learning English as an L2 were asked to listen to a series of English minimal pairs and indicate which of two options they were hearing. Half of the words presented to the participants were decoys, and half contained minimal pairs relying on the distinction between /l/ and /ɹ/. The target words were split into four groups: word initial /l/ or /ɹ/, word final /l/ or /ɹ/, word medial /l/ or /ɹ/, and words containing more than one /l/ or /ɹ/. The results will be analyzed using mixed-effects regression with the goal of further understanding any /l/ or /ɹ/ perception bias in L2 speakers of English.
Kelly et al. (Wed,) studied this question.