• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.203-211
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• 2020

Given that American English and British English show differences for several vowels and that Korean students have mainly been exposed to American English, this study examined 27 Korean university students' identification of American and British English vowels. The results showed that Korean students' identification accuracy of American English vowels was higher (64.7%) than that of British English (54.7%), thus indicating that Korean students' familiarity with American English affected the students' identification of English vowels. However, vowel variation also affected students' identification of English vowels in that only the American English vowels in the words beat, bat, but, burt, bart, bite were better identified than the corresponding vowels in British English. Among the vowels which exhibit differences between American English and British English, the students' identification accuracy of the American English vowels in burt, bart, bat was significantly higher than that of British English and the error patterns for these vowels were also different. The analysis of vowel error patterns indicated that Korean students had much difficulty with non-rhotic vowels and [a] in bat in British English. Further, the vowels in bot and boat demonstrated a similar [ɑ]-[ɔ]-[ʌ] confusion and also a confusion between rounded vowels in spite of the differences of these vowels between American English and British English. Some pedagogical implications for teaching of English vowels were discussed based on the findings of the present study.