• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.221-228
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems Korean students, having acoustic structure of Korean vowels, have when they pronounce English vowels by measuring formant frequencies. The experimental results show that the pronunciation of English vowels by Korean students is partially influenced by their Korean vowels. There is little distinction between /i/ and /I/, /U/ and /u/ due to the absence of short and long vowels in Korean pronunciation. Also, as observed in typical Korean vowel pronunciation, there is little difference between the F1 values of /$\varepsilon$/ and /$\{\ae}$/ by Korean speakers, resulting in inaccurate English pronunciation. In addition, compared to English native speakers, Korean speakers show the biggest difference in F1 value of /c/. The fact that they make pronunciation of /c/ covering /e/, /$\Lambda$/ and /c/ positions probably accounts for such phenomenon. The results of this experiment show the interference of Korean that occurred in some English vowels by native Korean speakers.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.69-75
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• 2010

We propose an automatic pronunciation diagnosis system to evaluate the pronunciation of a foreign language without the uttered text. We recorded English utterances spoken by native and Korean speakers, and utterances spoken by Koreans are evaluated by native speakers based on three criteria: fluency, accuracy of phones and intonation. The system evaluates the utterances of test Korean speakers based on the differences of log-likelihood given two models: one is trained by English speech uttered by native speakers, and the other is trained by English speech uttered by Korean speakers. We also applied purification algorithm to increase class differentiability. The purification can detect and eliminate the non-speech frames such as short pauses, occlusive silences that do not help to discriminate between utterances. As the results, our proposed system has higher correlation with the human scores than the baseline system.

• MALSORI
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• no.44
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• pp.15-32
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to investigate the production of English vowels by native speakers of Korean. In the production test, two English speakers and four native Korean speakers served as subjects. The four native Korean speakers were divided into two groups, experienced and inexperienced. Native English speakers generally showed significant differences both in vowel duration and in F1 & F2 values between members of vowel pairs which are of special interest of this study: /i/l vs. /I/, /$\varepsilon$/ vs. /${\ae}$/, and /u/ vs. /$\mho$/. The overall results showed that the experienced group produced more accurate results in vowel duration, F1, and F2 values.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.81-90
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• 2013

The purposes of this study are to: (1) Compare the vowel production of English front vowels produced by Korean speakers using regional dialects and; (2) Investigate and compare the effectiveness of pronunciation training for each regional dialect group. To test these objectives, the English front vowels produced by five Youngnam dialect male speakers, five Youngnam dialect female speakers, five Kangwon dialect male speakers, and five Kangwon dialect female speakers were scrutinized. These dialect groups' vowel formants and length of English front vowels were evaluated, and the post-pronunciation training values were compared with those of pre-training values. The results indicate that pronunciation training is more effective for Youngnam dialect speakers, whilst both dialect groups have more success mastering the pronunciation of /${\varepsilon}$/ over /${\ae}$/.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2016

The Korean high back vowels /o/ and /u/ have been reported to be in a state of near-merger especially among young female speakers. Along with cross-generational changes, the vowel position within a word has been reported to render different phonetic realization. The current study examines native English speakers' ability to attend to the phonetic cues that distinguish the two merging vowels and the positional effects (word-initial vs. word-final) on the identification accuracy. 28 two-syllable words containing /o/ or /u/ in either initial or final position were produced by native female Korean speakers. The CV part of each target word were excised and presented to six native English speakers. The results showed that although the identification accuracy was the lowest for /o/ in word- final position (41%), it increased up to 80% in word-initial position. The acoustic analyses of the target vowels showed that /o/ and /u/ were differentiated on the height dimension only in word-initial position, suggesting that English speakers may have perceived the distinctive F1 difference retained in the prominent position.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.133-148
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• 2001

Focus and information structure are closely related with the distribution of pitch accents. A focused word conveys new information and bears a pitch accent. A content word can usually get a pitch accent, but it can be deaccented if it is mentioned earlier in the discourse. In this paper, we test how English native speakers and Korean learners of English realize pitch accents according to focus and information structure of a sentence. The production experiment shows that English native speakers give a pitch accent to narrow-focused items, deaccenting all the other items of the sentence. For VP broad focus, native speakers give a pitch accent either to both the verb and its complement or to the complement only. On the other hand, it is found that Koreans give pitch accents to most content words regardless of focus and information structure. Moreover, the perception experiment confirms that Koreans' intonation patterns, which are not appropriate in terms of focus and information structure, may jeopardize listeners' comprehension. This paper shows that Korean speakers have little knowledge about focus and information structure for intonational realization, and that such notions should be applied to teaching of English intonation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.11-20
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to compare the acoustic parameters of English stop consonants at the initial and after-initial-/s/ positions in a message produced by 47 Korean and American speakers in order to provide better pronunciation skills of English stops for Korean learners. A Praat script was developed to obtain voice onset time (VOT), maximum consonant intensity (maxCi), and rate of rise (ROR) from six target words with stops at the positions in the message. Results show that VOT and maxCi were significantly different between the two language groups while ROR wasn't. The Korean speakers generally produced the stop consonants with longer VOTs and higher consonant intensity. From the comparison of consonant groups at the two different positions, the Korean participants did not distinguish them as clearly as the American participants did at the after-initial-/s/ position. Finally a comparison of each language and sex group revealed that the major difference was attributed to stop consonants in the after-/s/ position. The author concluded that Korean speakers should be careful not to produce all the stops with longer VOTs and higher intensity. Further studies would be desirable to examine how Americans evaluate Korean speakers' English proficiency with modified acoustic values of English stops.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 1995

Nowadays in Korea the subject of English education has been rising as one of the essential matters which need to be emphasized, reorganized, and thus refined. From the history of about one century to the current, English education may be compared to an adolescent who should be paid much more attention to grow as an independent adult. Although we recognize that there was much improvement in the past age of English education, a lot of assignments to solve await us. This study aims to suggest a recipe for optimal learning in English classes by linking theory with practice: First, the nation-wide academic associations of English teaching should act more energetically and cooperatively than ever. They need further specialization, dynamic participation, and systematic organization. At the same time the academic journals of their own should be publicized broadly, internationally as well as nationally. Second, there should be close contact and discussion between professors and secondary-school teachers. To achieve better learning in English classes, an effective cycle of equilibrium ought to be maintained by combining theory with practice. For example, language institute in universities/colleges can serve instructional programs such as lectures, colloquiums, and intensive courses for conversation. Third, native speakers of English should be positively utilized. Teachers had better keep close contact with native speakers as frequently as possible if they want to become fluent or at least acceptable speakers in English. Teachers may also use native speakers as aides in their classes.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

This study aims to investigate how prosodic prominence is perceived in relation to word class information (or parts-of-speech) by Korean learners of English compared with native English speakers in public speech. Two groups, Korean learners of English and native English speakers, were asked to judge words perceived as prominent simultaneously while listening to a speech. Parts-of-speech and three acoustic cues (i.e., max F0, mean phone duration, and mean intensity) were analyzed for each word in the speech. The results showed that content words tended to be higher in pitch and longer in duration than function words. Both groups of listeners rated prominence on content words more frequently than on function words. This tendency, however, was significantly greater for Korean learners of English than for native English speakers. Among the parts-of-speech of the content words, Korean learners of English were more likely than native English speakers to judge nouns and verbs as prominent. This study presents evidence that Korean learners of English consider most, if not all, content words as landing locations of prosodic prominence, in alignment with the previous study on the production of prominence.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2015

Speech production studies have suggested that bilinguals who are L2-dominant are the most likely to suppress the influence of the first language (L1) on the second language (L2). The voice onset times (VOTs) and fundamental frequencies (f0s) of monolingual and bilingual speakers of English and Korean were examined to address the question whether cross language influences occur particularly in L2 predominant bilinguals and to compare their outcomes with those of L2 proficient bilinguals and monolinguals. A total of 28 speakers participated in this experiment and they produced English and Korean stops in the carrier sentence. In English, for voiceless aspirated and unaspirated stops, L2 predominant bilingual speakers produced VOTs that were significantly shorter than those of monolingual English speakers. The outcome was analogous in Korean speech. For aspirated and lax stops, they produced shorter Korean VOTs than monolingual speakers. The results of f0s were slightly different from those of VOTs. In English, L2 predominant bilinguals produced f0s that were not significantly different from those of monolingual English speakers. In Korean, however, they produced f0s that were significantly different from those of monolingual Korean speakers. Taken VOT and f0 into consideration together, the overall results suggest that, although they tend to show a corresponding pattern of monolinguals, L2 predominant bilinguals had cross language phonetic influences between L1 and L2, similar to L2 proficient bilinguals. Between the two acoustic cues, f0 seemed to be a more reliable cue than VOT to examine the influences.