• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2014

Korean L2 speakers have many problems learning the pronunciation of English words. One of these problems is vowel epenthesis. Vowel epenthesis is the insertion of vowels into or between words, and Korean learners of English typically do this between successive consonants, either within clusters, or across syllables, word boundaries or following final coda consonants. The aim of this study was to investigate whether individual differences in vowel epenthesis are more closely related to the perception and production of segments (vowels and consonants) and prosody or if they are relatively independent from these processes. Subjects completed a battery of production and perception tasks. They read sentences, identified vowels and consonants, read target words likely to have epenthetic vowels (e.g., abduction) and demonstrated stress recognition and epenthetic vowel perception. The results revealed that Korean second-language learners (L2) have problems with vowel epenthesis in production and perception, but production and perception abilities were not correlated with one another. Vowel epenthesis was strongly related to vowel production and perception, suggesting that problems with segments may be combined with L1 phonotactics to produce epenthesis.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2014

The focus of this study was to investigate whether there is a position effect on identification accuracy of L2 consonants by Korean listeners and to examine how Korean listeners perceive the phonetic properties of initial and final consonants produced by a Korean learner of English and an English native speaker. Most studies examining L2 learners' perception of L2 sounds have focused on the segmental level but very few studies have examined the role of prosodic position in L2 learners' perception. In the present study, an identification test was conducted for English consonants /p, t, k, f, ɵ, s, ʃ/ in CVC prosodic structures. The results revealed that Korean listeners identified syllable-initial consonants more accurately than syllable-final consonants. The perceptual accuracy in syllable initial consonants may be attributable to the enhanced phonetic properties in the initial consonants. A significant correlation was found between error rates and F2 onset/offset for stops and fricatives, and between perceptual accuracy and RMS burst energy for stops. However, the identification error patterns were found to be different across consonant types and between the different language speakers. In the final position, Korean listeners had difficulty in identifying /p/, /f/, /ɵ/, and /s/ when they were produced by a Korean speaker and showed more errors in /p/, /t/, /f/, /ɵ/, and /s/ when they were spoken by an English native speaker. Comparing to the perception of English consonants spoken by a Korean speaker, greater error rates and diverse error patterns were found in the perception of consonants produced by an English native speaker. The present study provides the evidence that prosodic position plays a crucial role in the perception of L2 segments.

• MALSORI
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• no.39
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• pp.73-86
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• 2000

This paper aims to research the influence of mother tongue (Polish) on the perception of a foreign language (Korean) i.e. how vowel sounds that are totally unfamiliar to the listeners are perceived, how the similar sounds are perceived and whether the perception differs according to the phonetic values of the neighbouring sounds. As a result, the degree of the influence of Ll on the vowels of L2 is different in each case and mostly depends on the familiarity of the vowel in question and on the articulatory similarities between the vowels in both languages. The results are as follows; The best perception was observed with Korean /i/ and /a/ (very similar places of articulation in both languages). The worst degree of perception was Korean /(equation omitted)/ that is very unfamiliar to Polish subjects. Vowels that are not so different from the Ll sounds were perceived fairly well. Another important result is that Polish listeners seem to be more sensitive to lip rounding than to the height of the tongue. The role of the neighbouring sounds seems to be of a considerable importance, Depending on the preceding vowel, a sudden drop or rise in the degree of the perception was observed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.137-143
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• 2006

The aim of this paper is to investigate the prosodic characteristics of Korean distant speech. Four speakers (2 males and 2 females) produced 36 2-syllable words in both distant-talking and normal environments. totaling 288 spoken 2-syllable words. The results showed that ratios of second syllable to first syllable in vowel duration and vowel energy were significantly larger in the distant-talking environment compared to the normal environment and f0 range also bigger in the distant-talking environment. In addition, 'HL%' contour boundary tone in the second syllable and/or 'L+H' contour tone in the first syllable were used in the distant-talking environment.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2017

This study investigates non-native speakers(NNS) of English use of backchannels with beginner-intermediate learners' use of 'uh', 'um(uhm)', 'and' and 'hm' suggesting a view as a possible pedagogical implication. The initial aim of this study was to learn this phenomenon and observe their conversation patterns to compare with previous studies. Based on the previous findings, the analyzed data using conventional Conversation Analysis (CA) methods indicate the possible presence of L1 topic markers, '-un' and '-nun' in the form of L2 backchannel tokens when uttered by beginning and intermediate level speakers of English and the presences of L2 backchannel tokens appear only in front of noun phrases. Additionally, these same words with these tokens and when translated back to Korean also require topic markers of '-un' and '-nun.' Finally, This study discusses possible pedagogical implications with the initial analysis of backchannel tokens for Korean EFL learners. In addition, the ultimate goal of this study is to refine this analysis with follow up experiments to validate this investigation into a working hypothesis generating discussions of this backchannel phenomenon from being viewed as a hindrance to as an positive influence that needs to be understood.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-39
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• 2023

Recent research in usage-based Second Language Acquisition has provided new insights into second language (L2) learners' development of formulaic language (Wulff, 2019). The current study examines the use of phrase-frames, which are recurring sequences of words including one or more variable slots (e.g., it is * that), in written and oral production data from Asian learners of English across four proficiency levels (beginner, low-intermediate, high-intermediate, advanced) and native English speakers. The variability, predictability, and discourse functions of the most frequent 4-word phrase-frames from the written essay and spoken dialogue sub-corpora of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE) were analyzed and then compared across groups and modes. The results revealed that while learners' phrase-frames in writing became more variable and unpredictable as proficiency increased, no clear developmental patterns were found in speaking, although all groups used more fixed and predictable phrase-frames than the reference group. Further, no developmental trajectories in the functions of the most frequent phrase-frames were found in both modes. Additionally, lower-level learners and the reference group used more variable phrase-frames in speaking, whereas advanced-level learners showed more variability in writing. This study contributes to a better understanding of the development of L2 phraseological competence.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.123-147
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• 2002

As far as the recent ELT research concerned, it seems to have been no hot ‘theoretical’ issues, but ‘practical’ ones in general: e.g., learners and learning, components of proficiency, correlates of L2 learning, etc. This paper focuses on the theme given above, with a special reference to the sub-title: specifically, 1) World English, world Englishes and world's lingua franca; 2) ENL, ESL and EFL; 3) Grammars, style manuals, dictionaries and media; 4) Pronunciation models: RP, BBC model and General American, Network Standard; 5) Lexical, grammatical variations and discourse grammars; 6) Beliefs and subjective theories in foreign language research; 7) Dilemma among radical, canonical and eclectic views. In conclusion, the author offers a modest proposal: we need to appeal to our own experience, intention, feeling and purpose, that is, our identity to express “our own selves” in our contexts toward the world anywhere, if not sounding authentic enough, but producing it plausibly well. It is time for us (with our ethno-cultural autonomy) to need to be complementary to and parallel with its native speakers' linguistic-cultural authenticity in terms of the broadest mutual understanding.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.87-90
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• 2005

The aim of this paper is to investigate the prosodic characteristics of Korean distant speech. 36 2-syllable words of 4 speakers (2 males and 2 females) produced in both distant-talking and normal environments were used. The results showed that ratios of second syllable to first syllable in vowel duration and vowel energy were significantly larger in the distant-talking environment compared to the normal environment and f0 range also bigger in the distant-talking environment. In addition, 'HL%' contour boundary tone in the second syllable and/or 'L +H' contour tone in the first syllable were used in the distant-talking environment.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.197-216
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• 2012

This study examines spoken interlanguage of Korean learners of English, focusing on the distribution of modal verbs and devices of epistemic modality. (Semi-) spontaneous speech data were collected from four students participating in a self-organized study group for seven months, which produced a corpus of about 55,000 words. The data analysis reveals the following: 1) The frequency of the modal verbs produced by the learners was lower than that of native speakers; 1.99 vs. 2.32 tokens per 100 words. The range of the modal verbs used by the learners was also very limited, with over-reliance on can (43%). 2) The grammatical categories of the devices marking epistemic modality were in the order of adverbs, lexical verbs, and modal verbs, with a high frequency of a few items in each category. 3) Lexical items conveying certainty and modals of obligation were preferred over markers of weaker commitment, resulting in speech characterized by firmer assertions and a more authoritative tone, a potential cause for pragmatic failure. 4) A weak developmental change was observed in the frequency of modal verbs, but not in their functions over the seven month period of data collection. L1 influence, L2 proficiency, mode of communication, and instruction effects are discussed as possible variables involved in the distribution patterns observed.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1252-1257
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• 2017

In dialogues, speakers' intentions can be represented by sets of an emotion, a speech act, and a predicator. Therefore, dialogue systems should capture and process these implied characteristics of utterances. Many previous studies have considered such determination as independent classification problems, but others have showed them to be associated with each other. In this paper, we propose an integrated model that simultaneously determines emotions, speech acts, and predicators using a convolution neural network. The proposed model consists of a particular abstraction layer, mutually independent informations of these characteristics are abstracted. In the shared abstraction layer, combinations of the independent information is abstracted. During training, errors of emotions, errors of speech acts, and errors of predicators are partially back-propagated through the layers. In the experiments, the proposed integrated model showed better performances (2%p in emotion determination, 11%p in speech act determination, and 3%p in predicator determination) than independent determination models.