• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.69-76
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• 2017

The current study investigated whether Korean learners' English-learning environments, especially target English accent (General American English (GAE) vs. Southern British English (SBE)) and English-language experience affected their production of English vowels. Thirty six EFL learners, 27 ESL-US learners, and 33 ESL-UK learners produced 8 English vowels with a bVt frame (beat, bit, bet, bat, bought, bot, boat, boot). The learners' productions were acoustically analyzed in terms of F1 and F2 frequencies. The overall results revealed that the learners' target accent had an effect on their production of some English vowels. The EFL and ESL-US learners' (especially, female learners') production of bought, bot, boat, and boot, which show characteristic differences between the GAE and SBE accents, was closer to that of the native American English (AE) speakers than the native British English (BE) speakers. In contrast, the ESL-UK learners' production of bought and bot demonstrated the opposite pattern. Thus, the impact of target accent was not demonstrated across the board. The effect of the learners' different English-language experience was also rather limited. This was because the EFL learners' production was not much different from the ESL-US learners' production, in spite of the ESL-US learners' residence in the US for more than 9 years. Furthermore, the Korean learners, irrespective of their different English-language experience, tended to produce bit and bat with lower F1 than the native AE and BE speakers, thus resulting in bit and bat to be produced similarly to beat and bet, respectively. This demonstrates the learners' persistent L1 effects on their English vowel production despite the learners' residence in the English speaking countries or their high English proficiency.

• 한국어교육
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• 제29권3호
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• pp.197-225
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the difference in the interactions between beginning language learners and heritage learners on their forms based on the interaction hypothesis. In this study, three types of information gap activities were used to analyze Language Related Episodes (LREs) while investigating the interaction patterns in language use between four pairs (eight learners) of foreign learners and four pairs (eight learners) of English-speaking heritage learners. The result indicated that foreign learners had a high focus on form during interaction. In particular, they had a tendency to focus on vocabulary rather than grammar, and they conducted self-repair by examining and mostly adjusting their speech to postposition and tense. However, in the problem-solving process, they showed a limited ability in interaction, and thus directly asked others to settle the problem or resorted to using English due to their lack of ability to employ various communication strategies. However, heritage learners had a relatively low focus on form compared to foreign learners. Yet, they also focused more on vocabulary rather than grammar and conducted self-repair in interaction, especially for vocabulary. In addition, they were skillful at using various communication strategies such as indirect expressions, use of alternative words, evasion, and delaying, to expand speech and prevent communication breakdown. They focused less on grammar and mostly did not provide negative feedback in interaction.

• 영어영문학
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• 제57권6호
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• pp.1017-1041
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• 2011

This study investigates Korean EFL learners' awareness and use of the English existential there-construction by examining data collected from 54 Korean EFL learners of English by means of a pragmalinguistic judgment task and a controlled discourse completion task. The results of the judgment task reveal that lower proficiency learners rated canonical sentences and existentials with a preposed locative best in the communicative situations where the use of existentials would have been most appropriate. A comparison of the ratings by more proficient learners and native speakers shows that existentials received highest ratings by both groups where they are the most natural option, while canonical sentences received significantly higher ratings by the learners. With regard to the production data, learners tended to avoid existentials, but rather relied on canonical sentences. Existentials were rarely used by lower proficiency learners and not used productively even by more proficient learners in the situations where existentials would have been the most natural option. These results suggest that Korean learners' difficulty with the use of existentials is not merely a product of performance limitations, but attributable to limited knowledge about existentials and their syntactic alternatives in terms of contextual appropriateness. Lower proficiency learners lack such knowledge, and more proficient learners, while showing better awareness of the use of existentials, have problems as to the placement of new information when engaging in writing tasks that place lower level of demands on attention to the information status of noun phrases compared to communicative, oral tasks.

• 한국어학
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• 제63권
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• pp.103-132
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• 2014

This study compares various speech rates of Korean learners with those of native Korean. Speech data were collected from 34 native Koreans and 33 Korean learners (19 Chinese and 14 Japanese). Each participant recorded a 9 syllabled Korean sentence at three different speech rate types. A total of 603 speech samples were analyzed by speech rate types (normal, slow, and fast), native languages (Korean, Chinese, Japanese), and learners' proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). We found that learners' L1 background plays a role in categorizing different speech rates in the L2 (Korean), and also that the leaners' proficiency correlates with the increase of speaking rate regardless of speech rate categories. More importantly, faster speech rate values found in the advanced level of learners do not necessarily match to the native speakers' speech rate categories. This means that learning speech rate categories can be more complex than we think of proficiency or fluency. That is, speech rate categories may not be acquired automatically during the course of second language learning, and implicit or explicit exposures to various rate types are necessary for second language learners to acquire a high level of communicative skills including speech rate variation. This paper discusses several pedagogical implications in terms of teaching pronunciation to second language learners.

• 한국어학
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• 제80권
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• pp.211-234
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• 2018

This study aims to research the acoustic properties of Korean and Vietnamese monophthongs by Vietnamese advanced Korean learners, and to discuss the realization of Korean monophthongs compared to Koreans. The Vietnamese advanced Korean learners do not distinguish between /e/ and /${\varepsilon}$/, which are the same as Korean. They pronounce Korean /e(${\varepsilon}$)/ close to /e/ in their native language. In the case of /ʌ/, it is reported that many errors are observed in previous studies. However, /ʌ/ of Vietnamese advanced learners is realized similar to /ʌ/ spoken by Koreans. /ɯ/ of Vietnamese advanced Korean learners is pronounced in the back of the tongue, whereas in the central by Koreans. In the case of /o/ and /u/, there is no significant difference by the Vietnamese advanced Korean learners. /ɯ/ and /u/ are pronounced in relatively front side of the tongue in Korean, but it is not observed in the Vietnamese advanced Korean learners.

• 한국어교육
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.161-182
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine level of individual foreign learners' quantitative knowledge of korean vocabulary through the Foreign Learners' Korean Vocabulary Knowledge Assessment and to propose a vocabulary education plan reflecting the result. This assessment was written in focus of semantic relation to identify category, integrated and analytical knowledge of Korean verbs acquired by foreign learners and as a result, the following educational implications were made. First, the learners' knowledge about the vocabulary combinational relationship was very limited. Second, learners are not interested in vocabulary's synonymous relation and antonymous relations. Lastly, there needs to be a concern about postpositional particle-use education. The results of these kinds of research, observes the learners vocabulary acquisition process to determine Korean textbook and present vocabulary level in appropriate in terms of learners' perspective, and provide an opportunity to check if current professors' method is adequate and valid.

• 영어어문교육
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.161-182
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• 2010

The goals of this study were to identify differences in learners' and teachers' perspectives on EFL learners' language anxiety, to identify the differences among teachers coping with learners' language anxiety, and to find how learners cope with their language anxiety. The research was effectuated by means of a survey questionnaire and interviews. The data were collected from 92 teachers and 230 students in four different school settings. There were the $6^{th}$ grade 50 primary school learners, the $2^{nd}$ grade 60 middle school learners, the $11^{th}$ grade 60 high school learners of, and the $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ grade 60 university learners. There were also 26 primary school teachers, 22 middle school teachers, 21 high school teachers, and 23 university teachers. The findings reveal that there were differences in responses among the respondents. The findings suggest that teachers need to pay attention to their particular learners' anxiety sources: especially in the case of primary school setting, the activity of answering teachers' questions for teachers was the primary source of learner's anxiety, in the case of middle school settings, translating sentences in English into Korean, in the case of high school setting, checking unknown vocabulary, and in the case of university settings, university learners felt anxious when classmates spoke fluently. The implications of the study indicate that these aspects should be handled carefully to motivate certain group of learners.

• 한국영어학회지:영어학
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• 제2권3호
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• pp.305-327
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• 2002

This paper is in line with the attempts to examine two assumptions implied about the role of Universal Grammar (UC) in nonnative language acquisition: Are the EFL learners at disadvantage in acquiring UC-driven knowledge? Are there critical period effects in EFL learning? Based on the research with the seven studies of ESL and EFL adult learners performance on the Subjacency violation sentences, the paper investigates the extent to which the EFL adult learners can attain UG-driven knowledge represented by the Subjacency Principle. It also makes comparison of the EFL learners level of access to UG with that of their counterparts, the ESL learners. The research findings suggests that the EFL environment doesn't prevent the learners from acquiring target grammar in UG domain. That is, the current paper strongly suggests that the EFL adult-learners be able to acquire UG-driven knowledge to a considerable extent, at least as high as the ESL adult learners can attain. For the interpretation of the research results of the seven studies, Constructionist Hypothesis (CH) supported by a Minimalist Program (MP) assumption is employed. CH seems more plausible to account not only for incomplete acquisition observed among the beginning and intermediate level learners but also for the native-like competence acquired by advanced level L2 learners.

• 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.

• 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.