The acquisition and retention of second language speech sounds in immersion education and traditional foreign language education

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This study investigated long-term effects of childhood second language (L2) experience in an instructional setting on L2 pronunciation in adulthood. Specifically, it compared the production of Japanese speech sounds by English-speaking university students who had spent their early years in a Japanese immersion program (early learners) to that of English-speaking learners of university-level intermediate Japanese with no exposure to Japanese in childhood (late learners). Results did not confirm enough advantages in pronunciation for the early learners over the late learners despite a substantial amount of childhood experience in the immersion program.