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

本研究调查了儿童在教学环境中的第二语言经验对成年后第二语言发音的长期影响。具体地说，它比较了早年在日语浸入式项目中度过的说英语的大学生(早期学习者)和童年时期没有接触过日语的大学水平中级日语学习者(晚期学习者)的日语发音。结果并没有证实早期学习者在发音方面比晚期学习者有足够的优势，尽管在浸入式课程中有大量的童年经验。

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.