This study examined the effect of word class (nouns vs. verbs) on L2 pronunciation accuracy
of Korean–English bilinguals. The participants were 192 adult immigrants whose age of
arrival (AOA) in the United States ranged from 6 to 23 years. Transcriptions of their productions
of English sentences indicated that they were more accurate in pronouncing verbs than nouns.
Similarly, the results of a grammaticality judgment test revealed that they were more accurate in
detecting incorrect formulations of verbs than nouns. These effects were significant in late L2
learners (AOA 12–23). The results were interpreted to reflect the influence of the linguistic
structure of Korean (where the verb is more prominent than the noun) on learning English as an
L2.