Abstract
The purpose of the study is to investigate the efficacy of learning experience during the elementary school period, particularly in relation to the improvement of pronunciation skills. The focus was put on the difference between pronunciation skills of inexperienced and experienced students. 148 seventh graders' pronunciation skills were measured by means of an interview task with a native speaker of English. Five raters evaluated their pronunciation skills holistically on a five point scale. The experienced students, who were at an advanced level of English proficiency, showed that they had significantly higher pronunciation skills than both the inexperienced and other experienced students. The existence of a threshold level was suggested. The amount of learning experience could not directly explain the difference found between the inexperienced and the experienced students.
