• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2016

The purpose of the current study was to examine the acquisition of the second language prosody by Korean learners of English. Specifically, this study investigated Korean learners' patterns of prosodic phrasing and their use of edge tones (i.e., phrase accents and boundary tones) in English, and then compared the patterns with those of native English speakers. Eight Korean learners and 8 native speakers of English read 5 different English passages. Both groups' patterns of tones and prosodic phrasing were analyzed using the Mainstream American English Tones and Break Indices (MAE_ToBI) transcription conventions. The results indicated that the Korean learners chunked their speech into prosodic phrases more frequently than the native speakers did. This frequent prosodic phrasing pattern was especially noticeable in sentence-internal prosodic phrases, often where there was no punctuation mark. Tonal analyses revealed that the Korean learners put significantly more High phrase accents (H-) on their sentence-internal intermediate phrase boundaries than the native speakers of English. In addition, compared with the native speakers, the Korean learners used significantly more High boundary tones (both H-H% and L-H%) for the sentence-internal intonational phrases, while they used similar proportion of High boundary tones for the sentence-final intonational phrases. Overall, the results suggested that Korean learners of English successfully acquired the meanings and functions of prosodic phrasing and edge tones in English as well as that they are able to efficiently use these prosodic features to convey their own discourse intention.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.15-22
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• 2016

This study aims to examine whether the fundamental frequency (F0) varies depending on languages or distinguishes between L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) speech and whether the type of materials which vary in control of consonant voicing affects the use of F0-especially, mean F0. For this purpose, we compared productions of two languages produced by Korean L2 learners of English to those of Korean-English bilingual speakers. Twelve Korean L2 speakers of English and twelve Korean-English bilingual speakers participated in this study. The subjects read aloud 22 declarative sentences-balanced and unbalanced-once in English and once in Korean. Mean F0 of Korean was higher than that of English for both speaker groups, and the difference in the value of mean F0 between the Korean and English sentences was different depending on the type of materials that the participants read. With regard to F0 range, the L2 speakers had a larger F0 range in English than in Korean; however, the effect of language on F0 range was not statistically significant for the bilingual speakers. These results indicate that language-specific properties may affect the use of F0, in particular, mean F0.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.81-87
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• 2019

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the realization of speech rhythm in English as spoken by Korean learners of English. The study particularly aims to examine the rhythm metrics of English read speech by learners who speak Busan or the South Kyungsang dialect of Korean. Twenty-four learners whose L1 is Busan Korean and eight native speakers of English read a passage wherein five sentences were segmented and labeled as vocalic and intervocalic intervals. Various rhythm metrics such as %V, Varcos, and Pairwise Variability Indexes (PVIs) were calculated. The results show that Korean learners read English sentences with significantly more vocalic and consonantal intervals at a slower speech rate than native English speakers. The analyses of rhythm metrics revealed that when the speech rate was not normalized, Korean learners' English showed more variability in the length of consonantal and vocalic intervals. However, speech-rate-normalized rhythm metrics for vocalic intervals indicated that Korean learners transferred their L1 rhythmic structures (a syllable-timed language) into their L2 speech (a stress-timed language). Overall, the results suggest that Korean learners' English reflects the rhythmic characteristics of their L1. The effect of the learners' L1 dialect on the realization of L2 speech rhythm is also speculated.

• 한국생활과학회지
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.961-972
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the improvement of English proficiency of children in the ESL and EFL learning style classrooms through the experiment method. The results of this research are as follows: first, the scores of listening and speaking and the perception of alphabets in the ESL program are higher than that in the EFL program. This means that learning in the ESL style classroom is the better way to improve English skills than in the EFL style classroom, which is common in Korea. Second, there is no difference in the English listening and speaking skills and the perception of the English alphabets between the two gender groups in the ESL & EFL style classrooms. These results suggest that the target language may be used in the English classrooms by the teachers and the students with the materials, books, and equipment are English. Teachers are expected to be in charge of playing decisive roles as demonstrators of speech, models and correctors of pronunciation and providers of materials including TV, VCR, CD players, and cassette recorders, etc.

• 공학교육연구
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.22-33
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• 2014

This paper presents a comparative study on the effectiveness of teaching an engineering course using English with Specific Purpose(ESP). A study was performed using student groups; one class using ESP, and one class conducted in English with an English text. The course conducted using ESP showed the greatest improvement in English writing and conversation, and the students reported a greatly increased confidence in their ability to function professionally using English. A self-assessment of each student was conducted before and after the courses. Prior to the course less than 10% in each group felt that they are able to: a) understand a textbook, b) write an email, c) generate a project report, or d) follow a lecture given in English. The survey at the end of the course showed that the ESP teaching style resulted in significant improvements in students ability and confidence with writing and speaking in English, whereas reading skills were similar for both groups. This is due to the ESP method, in which students are required to give presentations and keep journals in English. After a brief review of the ESP principles and a discussion of how they were implemented, the background data of the participants(students) are described. Finally, the end-of-semester survey highlights the efficacy of the ESP approach.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제3권3호
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• pp.77-88
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• 2011

Foreign accent in second language production depends heavily on the transfer of features from the first language. This study examines acoustic variations in segments and suprasegments by native and nonnative speakers of English, searching for patterns of the transfer and plausible indexes of foreign accent in English. The acoustic variations are analyzed with recorded read speech by 20 native English speakers and 50 Korean learners of English, in terms of vowel formants, vowel duration, and syllabic variation induced by stress. The results show that the acoustic measurements of vowel formants and vowel and syllable durations display difference between native speakers and nonnative speakers. The difference is robust in the production of lax vowels, diphthongs, and stressed syllables, namely the English-specific features. L1 transfer on L2 specification is found both at the segmental levels and at the suprasegmental levels. The transfer levels measured as groups and individuals further show a continuum of divergence from the native-like target. Overall, the eldest group, students who are in the graduate schools, shows more native-like patterns, suggesting weaker foreign accent in English, whereas the high school students tend to involve larger deviation from the native speakers' patterns. Individual results show interdependence between segmental transfer and prosodic transfer, and correlation with self-reported proficiency levels. Additionally, experience factors in English such as length of English study and length of residence in English speaking countries are further discussed as factors to explain the acoustic variation.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.291-315
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• 2010

The present study examined the role of dialogue journaling in Korean students' English writing development. Thirteen Korean middle school students participated in a five-week dialogue journal writing program. The participants' English writing skills before and after their dialogue journaling were compared in terms of holistic and analytical scores of their English essays. The study also examined the changes in the participants' language use, as manifested in their dialogue journals. The results indicated the positive influence of dialogue journal writing on the participants' English writing skills in the areas of content and lexical fluency. As for the linguistic evidence that related dialogue journaling to English writing development, the three patterns of change in language use emerged from the participants' dialogue journals: a) raised awareness on grammar conventions, b) raised awareness on discourse conventions, and c) increased depth and richness in idea development. There were also three unhelpful factors associated with little improvement of English writing: a) lack in basic writing skills, b) repetitive use of identical sentence patterns, and c) lack in grammatical and lexical awareness. Overall, the results suggested that dialogue journaling could facilitate Korean students' English writing development when it creates authentic communicative interactions between the teacher and students.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.37-44
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• 2023

This study investigates perceptual confusions of English fricatives among 121 Korean elementary school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with shorter periods of learning English. The objective is to examine how they perceive English fricative consonants and to provide educational guidelines. Two sets of English fricative identification tasks-voiceless fricatives and voiced fricatives-were administered to participants in a High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) setting. Their phonemic awareness of the fricatives was visualized in perceptual confusion maps via multidimensional scaling analysis. The findings are explored in terms of the impacts of Korean EFL learners' L1 linguistic aspects and a comparison with L1 learners. Learners' phonemic awareness patterns are then compared with their relative importance in speech intelligibility based on a functional load hierarchy. The results indicated that Korean elementary EFL learners recognized English fricatives in a manner largely akin to L1 learners, suggesting their ongoing acquisition progress. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that the young EFL learners possess sufficient phonemic awareness for most high functional load segments but encounter some difficulties with one high and one low functional pair. The findings of this study offer suggestions for diagnosing language learners' phonemic awareness abilities, thereby aiding in the development of practical guidelines for language instructional design and helping educators make informed decisions regarding teaching priority in L2 classes.

• 비교문화연구
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• 제53권
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• pp.251-277
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• 2018

본 연구의 목적은 국내 대학에서 개설되는 영어강의를 참관하고, 교수자와 학습자를 대상으로 영어강의에 대한 인터뷰를 통해 국내 대학에서 개설되는 영어강의의 문제가 무엇인지, 영어강의의 효과를 높이기 위한 방안이 무엇인지 고찰하는 것이다. 본 연구의 목적을 위해 우선 일부 강좌만 영어강의로 개설하는 부산 소재 국립대학과 전체 강좌를 영어강의로 개설하는 울산 소재 국립대학의 영어강의를 구분하여 조사하고, 이를 전체 강좌를 영어강의로 개설하는 일본 대학의 경우와 비교 분석하였다. 영어강의에 대한 정확한 분석을 위해 동일한 방식으로 강의를 참관하고 분석하였으며, 해당 강의의 교수자와 학습자들을 대상으로 영어강의에 대한 인식을 확인하는 심층인터뷰를 진행하였다. 연구 결과에 따르면 국내 두 대학에서 개설되는 영어강의의 효과를 높이기 위해 학습자의 영어구사력을 영어강의 수강에 충분한 수준으로 높이고, 학습자간 영어구사력의 편차를 최소한으로 줄이는 것이 가장 필요하다는 것을 확인하였다. 이에 본 연구에서는 영어학습자의 영어구사력을 높이는 방안으로 영어강의 수강을 위한 학문목적 대학영어교육(EAP) 과정이 필요하다고 주장하였다.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.391-411
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of culture teaching and using web sites as a method of culture teaching in college English education. To achieve these purposes, a web-based culture teaching-learning model was developed and applied in English classes. Then, the effects were compared with those of a culture teaching method which were based on the traditional verbal explanation. As the tools for this study, two test sheets were used to measure language proficiency and American cultural knowledge. Focusing on the study results, the conclusions were summed up as follows: First, for enhancing the American cultural knowledge, using the web was found to be more effective than traditional verbal explanations. Second, for English language enhancement through web-based culture teaching, it is necessary to do it for each level of English proficiency or develop web sites which fit well with students' interests or levels.