• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.75-85
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• 2000

Koreans and English have different phonotactic constraints and phonological rules. It causes Korean learners to have difficulty in pronouncing certain English consonant clusters correctly. This paper aims to discuss what English consonant clusters are difficult for Korean learners to learn and why this difficulty arises by comparing phonotactic constraints and phonological rules of English and Korean.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2018

This paper investigates how adult Mandarin- and English- speaking learners of Korean perceive Korean vowels, with focus on the effect of the first language (L1) and the second language (L2) acoustic relationship, as well as the influence of Korean language experience. For this study, native Mandarin and Canadian English speakers who have learned Korean as a foreign language, as well as a control group of native Korean speakers, participated in two experiments. Experiment 1 was designed to examine acoustic similarities between Korean and English vowels, as well as Korean and Mandarin vowels to predict which Korean vowels are relatively easy, or difficult for L2 learners to perceive. The linear discriminant analysis (Klecka, 1980) based on their L1-L2 acoustic similarity predicted that L2 Mandarin learners would have perceptual difficulty rankings for Korean vowels as follows: (the easiest) /i, a, e/ >> /ɨ, ʌ, o, u/ (most difficult), whereas L2 English learners would have perceptual difficulty rankings for Korean vowels as follows: (the easiest) /i, a, e, ɨ, ʌ/ >> /o, u/ (most difficult). The goal of Experiment 2 was to test how accurately L2 Mandarin and English learners perceive Korean vowels /ɨ, ʌ, o, u/ which are considered to be difficult for L2 learners. The results of a mixed-effects logistic model revealed that English listeners showed higher identification accuracy for Korean vowels than Mandarin listeners, indicating that having a larger L1 vowel inventory than the L2 facilitates L2 vowel perception. However, both groups have the same ranking of Korean vowel perceptual difficulty: ɨ > ʌ > u > o. This finding indicates that adult learners of Korean can perceive the new vowel /ɨ/, which does not exist in their L1, more accurately than the vowel /o/, which is acoustically similar to vowels in their L1, suggesting that L2 learners are more likely to establish additional phonetic categories for new vowels. In terms of the influence of experience with L2, it was found that identification accuracy increases as Korean language experience rises. In other words, the more experienced English and Mandarin learners of Korean are, the more likely they are to have better identification accuracy in Korean vowels than less experienced learners of Korean. Moreover, there is no interaction between L1 background and L2 experience, showing that identification accuracy of Korean vowels is higher as Korean language experience increases regardless of their L1 background. Overall, these findings of the two experiments demonstrated that acoustic similarity between L1 and L2 sounds using the LDA model can partially predict perceptual difficulty in L2 acquisition, indicating that other factors such as perceptual similarity between L1 and L2, the merge of Korean /o/ and /u/ may also influence their Korean vowel perception.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-68
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• 2006

The present research investigates the acquisition of the English locative alternation by Korean EFL learners, which poses a learnability paradox, taking Pinker's framework of learnability theory as its basis. It addresses two questions (1) how lexical knowledge is represented initially and at different levels of interlanguage development and (2) what kinds of difficulty Korean learners find in the acquisition of English locative verbs and their constructions. Three groups of learners at different proficiency levels with a control group of English native speakers are examined by two instruments: elicited production task and grammaticality judgment task. According to different levels of proficiency, the learners exhibit gradual sensitivity to a change-of-state meaning and obtain complete perception of the meanings of locative verbs (manner-of-motion and change-of-state) and their constructions. Overgeneralization errors are observed in their performance. The errors are due to misinterpretations of particular lexical items in conjunction with the universal linking rules. More fundamental cause of difficulty is accounted for by partial use of learning mechanisms, caused by insufficient L2 input.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.67-75
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• 2020

The 'level of difficulty' is one of the major factors for learners when selecting learning contents. However, the criteria for the difficulty level is mostly defined by the contents providers. This approach does not support the personalized education which should consider the abilities and environments of various learners. In this research, the knowledge of the learners and contents were formalized and generalized to resolve the issue, and object models, including a metric for personalized difficulty level, were designed in order to be applied for experiments. And then, based on 100 contents for music education and 20 learners, we performed simulations with an implemented tool to validate our approach. The experimental results showed that our method can calculate the personalized difficulty levels considering the similarities between the knowledges from the learning state and the contents. Our approach can be effectively applied to the on-line learning management system which contains easy access to the learning state and contents data.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.80-83
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• 2004

The core purpose of the system proposed in this paper is to help learners pursue proactive and self-oriented education by allowing learners to proactively configure their own content, that is, learners no longer have to be restricted by prescribed sequence of lectures. Although a variety of standardization and Learning Management System (LMS) were produced to develop and effectively manage web contents in response to active diffusion of internet application, practical changes to assist online learners are not yet to be found. In this paper, I would like to introduce a LMS that can support self-leading education by providing various types of learners at Virtual University with delicately organized educational contents for maximum efficiency. The system allows a learner to select a lecture or a chapter which has been presorted to meet his educational needs and intellectual ability. In general, most LMSs cannot meet every individual's educational needs because they structure their programs by letting learners simply choose from a list of available lectures at prescribed level or difficulty. However the Self-Leading LMS eliminates such boundaries by allowing learners to choose contents and difficulty within the limit set by their own educational competence.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.3-16
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• 2010

This study aims at setting the hierarchy of difficulty of the 7 Korean monophthongs for Mongolian learners of Korean according to Prator's theory based on the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. In addition to that, it will be shown that the difficulties and errors for Mongolian learners of Korean as a second or foreign language proceed directly from this hierarchy of difficulty. This study began by looking at the speeches of 60 Mongolians for Mongolian monophthongs; data were investigated and analyzed into formant frequencies F1 and F2 of each vowel. Then, the 7 Korean monophthongs were compared with the resultant Mongolian formant values and are assigned to 3 levels, 'same', 'similar' or 'different sound'. The findings in assessing the differences of the 8 nearest equivalents of Korean and Mongolian vowels are as follows: First, Korean /a/ and /$\wedge$/ turned out as a 'same sound' with their counterparts, Mongolian /a/ and /ɔ/. Second, Korean /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/ turned out as a 'similar sound' with each their Mongolian counterparts /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/. Third, Korean /ɨ/ which is nearest to Mongolian /i/ in terms of phonetic features seriously differs from it and is thus assigned to 'different sound'. And lastly, Mongolian /$\mho$/ turned out as a 'different sound' with its nearest counterpart, Korean /u/. Based on these findings the hierarchy of difficulty was constructed. Firstly, 4 Korean monophthongs /a/, /$\wedge$/, /i/, /e/ would be Level 0(Transfer); they would be transferred positively from their Mongolian counterparts when Mongolians learn Korean. Secondly, Korean /o/, /u/ would be Level 5(Split); they would require the Mongolian learner to make a new distinction and cause interference in learning the Korean language because Mongolian /o/, /u/ each have 2 similar counterpart sounds; Korean /o, u/, /u, o/. Thirdly, Korean /ɨ/ which is not in the Mongolian vowel system will be Level 4(Overdifferentiation); the new vowel /ɨ/ which bears little similarity to Mongolian /i/, must be learned entirely anew and will cause much difficulty for Mongolian learners in speaking and writing Korean. And lastly, Mongolian /$\mho$/ will be Level 2(Underdifferentiation); it is absent in the Korean language and doesn‘t cause interference in learning Korean as long as Mongolian learners avoid using it.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.288-291
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• 2007

The aim of this study is to clarify degrees of difficulty of the Japanese L2 (second language) learners for learning Korean sounds and phonological rules. 31 subjects took a questionnaire survey and an identification test using words. In addition, each subject's pronunciation was evaluated by 3 Korean native speakers. As for Korean sounds, the results show that Japanese L2 learners have a tendency perceiving that listening is more difficult than pronouncing, although the listening test's scores were greater than the pronunciation test's scores for a majority of the items. As for Korean phonological rules, 1) there were some difficult items for applying the phonological rules, although Japanese L2 learners had knowledge of them, and 2) there were also some items that Korean native speakers evaluated Japanese L2 learners' pronunciations as the phonological rules were applied, even though learners pronounced them without any knowledge.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.93-112
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to deal with vocabulary in KFL. As a result of this study, learners learned vocabulary on average 43 points through contextual inference and introduction of the class to activate background knowledge. In particular, the implicit method showed the highest learning rate of 52 points, and the thematic method had a 41 point-learning rate. In contrast, the semantic method was the lowest with a 25 point-learning rate. There was no significant difference in the improvement rate of upper vocabulary learners, but in the case of the lower learner, there was significant difference in the improvement rate. The difference was not significant in the post-test relative gain rate of upper learners, but there was significant in lower learners. In the delayed test relative gain rate, the difference was significant in all groups. There was correlation between vocabulary difficulty and score, but there was no correlation with the thematic method. And there was no correlation between vocabulary difficulty, improvement rate and relative gain rate in all three classes. However, content understanding, lexical grade, improvement rate, and relative gain rate showed a significant correlation.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2005

A purpose of the system proposed in this paper is to help learners pursue proactive and self-oriented education by allowing learners to proactively configure their own content, that is, learners no longer have to be restricted by prescribed sequence of lectures. In general, most LMSs cannot meet every individual's educational needs because they structure their programs by letting learners simply choose from a list of available lectures at prescribed level or difficulty. However the Self-Leading LMS eliminates such boundaries by allowing learners to choose contents and difficulty within the limit set by their own educational competence.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.79-87
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• 2016

The purpose of this study aimed to examine the perceptual pattern of the Korean coda consonants by Chinese learners of Korean. Given that Mandarin allows only two nasals (/n, ŋ/) in the coda position, it was predicted that Chinese learners of Korean had difficulty in discriminating Korean coda consonants. In the experiment, the subjects were 21 beginner-level Chinese learners of Korean. They participated in the discrimination task four times a year in which they were asked to choose the right Korean coda consonants after listening the word from Korean native speakers. The results demonstrated that 1) Chinese learners of Korean improved their perception of the Korean coda consonants. 2) But Chinese learners of Korean performed differently according to the type of Korean coda consonants. Korean consonants /n, p, k, m/ showed significant differences, but /l, ŋ, t/ did not.