The Influence of Age and Native Language Prosody on the Perception of Czech Word Stress

Abstract This study investigates the perception of Czech word stress among second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) is Russian, with particular attention to the interaction among age, language experience, and native prosodic structures in shaping stress perception accuracy. The results indicate that older adult learners (40+ years of age) exhibit lower accuracy and slower responses when identifying the position of stress in Czech words compared with younger learners (10 to 15 years of age). These differences reflect the combined influence of L1-based cue-weighting strategies, age-related changes in auditory processing, and differences in exposure to Czech, particularly given that Czech stress is phonetically weak and provides limited acoustic cues. In contrast, younger learners perform closer to the native-listener control group, a pattern consistent with greater perceptual plasticity and more sustained exposure to Czech in educational settings. The study highlights how maturational factors, language experience, and cross-linguistic differences in prosodic organization jointly shape L2 phonological perception and underscores the importance of explicit attention to prosodic structure in second-language instruction.