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This study investigated L2 English listeners' intelligibility and comprehensibility ratings of L2 English recordings of L1 Korean speakers' speech. Specifically, it considered which segmentals and features resulting from Korean phonotactics cause a breakdown in Korean speakers' L2 English intelligibility and comprehensibility for Mandarin L1-background L2 English speakers. As Korean speakers use English as a lingua franca primarily with their L1 Mandarin speaking neighbours, recordings of scripted and unscripted speech of Korean university students were sent to L1 Mandarin raters in mainland China and Taiwan, who rated utterances for intelligibility and comprehensibility. Findings showed that the most frequently mistranscribed features were epenthesis (inclusion of extra vowels to separate clustered consonants), substitution of nasals for plosives between vowels and sonorant consonants, and the consonant-vowel combination [wʊ]. Findings also suggest that less problematic features, such as [əʊ], /r/, and the distinction between [ʊ] and [u], are at times aided by similar realisations by L2 listeners.

The current study examined first language (Spanish) language reading and writing ability and behavior and relationships with digit span and stroop task performance. A battery of assessments and questionnaires was administered to 81 sequential Spanish-English bilingual university students in the U.S., for whom the sole language of education is English. . Hierarchical regression models revealed amount of Spanish used for academic writing uniquely accounted for 17% of variance in digit span forward scores, controlling for non-verbal IQ. Selfreported Spanish reading and writing ability also significantly predicted higher digit span forward scores and stroop task performance. Findings indicate that vectors of within-population difference related to L1 academic reading and writing are associated with differences in verbal short term memory and inhibition. Findings underscore the importance of considering diversity within bilingual samples and further support theories of a continuum of bilingual experience intensity, which is related to outcomes.