Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2019.11.4.019

Egyptian learners' learnability of Korean phonemes  

Benjamin, Sarah (Korean Department, Ain Shams University)
Lee, Ho-Young (Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University)
Hwang, Hyosung (Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Phonetics and Speech Sciences / v.11, no.4, 2019 , pp. 19-33 More about this Journal
Abstract
This paper examines the perception of Korean phonemes by Egyptian learners of Korean and presents the learnability gradient of Korean consonants and vowels through High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT). 50 Egyptian learners of Korean (27 low proficiency learners and 23 high proficiency learners) participated in 10 sessions of HVPT for Korean vowels, word initial and final consonants. Participants were tested on their identification ability of Korean vowels, word initial consonants, and syllable codas before and after the training. The results showed that both low and high proficiency groups did benefit from the training. Low proficiency learners showed a higher improvement rate than high proficiency learners. Based on the HVPT results, a learnability gradient was established to give insights into priorities in teaching Korean sounds to Egyptian learners.
Keywords
L2 speech acquisition; high variability phonetic training; gradient of learnability; Egyptian learners of Korean;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Aliaga-Garcia, C., & Mora, J. C. (2009). Assessing the effects of phonetic training on L2 sound perception and production. In M. A. Watkins, A. S. Rauber, & B. O. Baptista (Eds.), Recent research in second language phonetics/phonology: Perception and production (pp. 2-31). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
2 Benjamin, S. M. F. (2013). Production and perception of Korean obstruents by Egyptian learners. (Master's thesis). Seoul National University.
3 Benjamin, S. M. F. (2019). The acquisition of Korean sounds by Egyptian learners (Doctoral dissertation). Seoul National University.
4 Bradlow, A. R., Pisoni, D. B., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Tohkura, Y. I. (1997). Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: IV. Some effects of perceptual learning on speech production. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101(4), 2299-2310.   DOI
5 Brown, A. (1988). Functional load and the teaching of pronunciation. Tesol Quarterly, 22(4), 593-606.   DOI
6 Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233-277). Baltimore, MD: York Press.
7 Flege, J. E. (2003). Assessing constraints on second-language segmental production and perception. In N. O. Schiller & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 319-355). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.
8 Fitri, M., & Kim, Y. (2012). An acoustic and phonetic study of Indonesian learners' pronunciation of Korean /ʌ/ and /o/. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, 18(2), 245-262.   DOI
9 Ghazeli, S. (1977). Back consonants and backing coarticulation in Arabic (Doctoral dissertation). University of Texas at Austin.
10 Hazan, V., Sennema, A., Iba, M., & Faulkner, A. (2005). Effect of audiovisual perceptual training on the perception and production of consonants by Japanese learners of English. Speech Communication, 47(3), 360-378.   DOI
11 Jakobson, R. (1957). Mufaxxama-The emphatic phonemes in Arabic: synchronic and diachronic aspects. In E. Pulgram (Ed.), Studies presented to Joshua Whatmough on his sixtieth birthday (pp. 105-115). The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.
12 Hirata, Y., Whitehurst, E., & Cullings, E. (2007). Training native English speakers to identify Japanese vowel length contrast with sentences at varied speaking rates. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(6), 3837-3845.   DOI
13 Hwang, H. (2017). A study on the perception of Korean vowels and consonants by Chinese learners of Korean (Doctoral dissertation). Seoul National University.
14 Iverson, P., & Evans, B. G. (2009). Learning English vowels with different first-language vowel systems II: Auditory training for native Spanish and German speakers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126(2), 866-877.   DOI
15 Iverson, P., Hazan, V., & Bannister, K. (2005). Phonetic training with acoustic cue manipulations: A comparison of methods for teaching English /r/–/l/ to Japanese adults. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(5), 3267-3278.   DOI
16 Iverson, P., Pinet, M., & Evans, B. G. (2012). Auditory training for experienced and inexperienced second-language learners: Native French speakers learning English vowels. Applied Psycholinguistics, 33(1), 145-160.   DOI
17 Kim, E. K. (2012). A study on Native Chinese Speaker's acquisition of Korean vowels (Doctoral dissertation). Chungnam National University.
18 Kingston, J. (2003). Learning foreign vowels. Language and Speech, 46(2-3), 295-348.   DOI
19 Lambacher, S. G., Martens, W. L., Kakehi, K., Marasinghe, C. A., & Molholt, G. (2005). The effects of identification training on the identification and production of American English vowels by native speakers of Japanese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26(2), 227-247.   DOI
20 Lee, E. B. (2016). Effects of perceptual training for Korean monophthongs perception and production among Chinese learners of Korean. (Master's thesis). Korea University.
21 Lee, H. Y., & Hwang, H. (2016). Gradient of learnability in teaching English pronunciation to Korean learners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 139(4), 1859-1872.   DOI
22 Lively, S. E., Logan, J. S., & Pisoni, D. B. (1993). Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/. II: The role of phonetic environment and talker variability in learning new perceptual categories. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 94(3), 1242-1255.   DOI
23 Logan, J. S., Lively, S. E., & Pisoni, D. B. (1991). Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: A first report. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 89(2), 874-886.   DOI
24 Munro, M. J. (1993). Productions of English vowels by native speakers of Arabic: Acoustic measurements and accentedness ratings. Language and Speech, 36(1), 39-66.   DOI
25 Nishi, K., & Kewley-Port, D. (2007). Training Japanese listeners to perceive American English vowels: Influence of training sets. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50(6), 1496-1509.   DOI
26 Norlin, K. (1987). A phonetic study of emphasis and vowels in Egyptian Arabic. University of Lund, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, Working Papers, 30, 1-119.
27 R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org/
28 Rifaat, K. (2003). Voice onset time in egyptian arabic: A case where phonological categories dominate. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 791-794), Barcelona, Spain.
29 Strange, W., & Dittmann, S. (1984). Effects of discrimination training on the perception of /r-l/ by Japanese adults learning English. Perception & Psychophysics, 36(2), 131-145.   DOI
30 Park, S. H. (2011). Effects of perceptual training on Korean three-way phoneme distinction. Journal of Korean Language Education, 22(2), 139-160.   DOI
31 Surendran, D., & Niyogi, P. (2003). Measuring the usefulness (functional load) of phonological contrasts (Cornell University, Technical Report TR-2003-12). Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.CL/0311036
32 Wang, Y., Spence, M. M., Jongman, A., & Sereno, J. A. (1999). Training American listeners to perceive Mandarin tones. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106(6), 3649-3658.   DOI
33 Watson, J. C. E. (2002). The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
34 Bradlow, A. R., Akahane-Yamada, R., Pisoni, D. B., & Tohkura, Y. I. (1999). Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: Long-term retention of learning in perception and production. Perception & Psychophysics, 61(5), 977-985.   DOI
35 Kim, J. E. (2010). Perceptual training for teaching Korean segments. (Master's thesis). Korea University.