경남 방언 영어학습자들의 영어 고모음 인지 연구

이동명,임수현 동아대학교 석당학술원 2014 石堂論叢 Vol.0 No.58

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception (mapping) of English high vowels /i, I, u, U/ of Korean EFL learners. The experiment subjects were 35 male middle school students who were born and have lived in South Kyungsang Korea. English high vowels are easy to be confused by Korean English learners thus these vowels were chosen as English target vowels for the current perception study. This study investigated how the subjects perceive these English high vowels and match them to what Korean vowels by carrying out the perception experiment. In addition, the current study implemented the test to look into the Korean subjects' perception concerning the degree of similarity between Korean and English high vowels which they listened to. The results are as follows. First, the English high front tense vowel /i/ is perceived as Korean vowel /이/ in 97.1% which is the highest mapping rate. The English high back lax vowel /U/ is perceived as Korean vowel /우/ in 42.5% which is the lowest mapping rate of this experiment. Second, in the case of the degree of similarity between English and Korean vowels, most South Kyungsang Korean subjects marked number 3 or 4 out of 1 (same as Korean) to 7 (totally different from Korean) Likert Scale. Thus, the subjects seemed to recognize only some degree of similarity between two different vowel systems. This study shows that South Kyungsang Korean middle school English learners have perceived and corresponded English high tense vowels better than English high lax vowels. That is, Korean vowel system does not distinguish tenseness and laxness distinctively, but the South Kyungsang Korean subjects mostly perceived English high tense vowels as Korean high tense vowels (97.1%) and they think the English vowels are somewhat similar to Korean vowels (3∼4 out of 7) even though they do not think Korean and English vowels are exactly the same. Therefore, South Kyungsang Korean English learners seem to perceive and match the English high tense vowels more easily than the lax vowels in the case of perception of English vowels and their mapping to Korean vowel system. This implies that South Kyungsang Korean EFL learners need to understand more accurately the vowel system of a target language when they learn the language. From the results of the present study, it does not seem to need a separate pronunciation education system for South Kyungsang Korean English learners. However, South Kyungsang Korean English learners need to be educated the difference between their native language (L1) and a second language (L2). Especially, it seems that South Kyungsang Korean English learners need a focused and intensive education for the acquisition of English lax vowels. 본 연구의 목적은 한국인 영어 학습자, 특히 경남 방언 영어 학습자들의 영어 고모음 /i, I, u, U/에 대한 인지 및 대응(mapping)을 분석하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 경상남도에 거주하는 35명의 남자 중학생들을 대상으로 한국인 영어 학습자들이 혼돈하기 쉬운 영어 고모음을 실험 모음으로 선정하여 인지 실험을 실시하였다. 본 논문의 인지 실험에서는 피실험자들이 영어 고모음들을 한국어의 어떤 모음으로 인지하여 대응시키는지를 알아보고자 하였다. 또한, 본 실험을 통하여 피실험자들이 영어의 고모음들을 한국어 모음들과 어느 정도 유사하다고 생각하는지에 관해서도 살펴보았다. 본 연구에서 실시한 인지 실험에 의하여 도출된 결과를 전체적으로 살펴보면 전설 긴장 고모음(high front tense vowel) /i/에 대한 한국어 모음 /이/의 대응률이 97.2%로 가장 높았고, 후설 이완 고모음(high back lax vowel) /U/에 대한 한국어 모음 /우/의 대응률이 42.5%로 가장 낮음을 알 수 있었다. 그리고 영어 모음과 한국어 모음의 유사도 부분에서는 대부분의 문항에서 3∼4 정도의 유사도(Likert 7점 Scale 사용)가 나온 것으로 보아서 한국어(경남 방언 화자) 피실험자들은 영어 모음 소리와 한국어 모음 소리 간에 중간 정도의 유사성이 있는 것으로 인식하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 결론적으로 본 연구를 통하여 경남방언을 구사하는 중학생 영어 학습자들은 영어의 긴장 모음을 영어의 이완 모음보다 더 잘 인지하여 대응시켰음을 알 수 있었다. 이러한 결과가 도출된 이유는 한국어 모음체계가 긴장성(tenseness)과 이완성(laxness)이라는 특징으로 명확히 구분되어 있지는 않지만, 한국어 모음들이 영어의 긴장 모음에 더 가깝기 때문일 것으로 판단된다. 따라서 한국인 영어 학습자들은 영어 모음체계의 인지 및 대응에서도 영어의 이완 모음보다는 긴장 모음을 더 잘 인지하여 이를 한국어 모음에 대응시킨 것으로 생각된다.

경남 방언 영어학습자들의 영어 고모음 인지 연구

이동명 ( Dong Myung Lee ),임수현 ( Su Hyeon Im ) 東亞大學校附設 石堂傳統文化硏究院 2014 石堂論叢 Vol.0 No.58

본 연구의 목적은 한국인 영어 학습자, 특히 경남 방언 영어 학습자들의 영어 고모음 /i, I, u, U/에 대한 인지 및 대응(mapping)을 분석하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 경상남도에 거주하는 35명의 남자 중학생들을 대상으로 한국인 영어 학습자들이 혼돈하기 쉬운 영어 고모음을 실험 모음으로 선정하여 인지 실험을 실시하였다. 본 논문의 인지 실험에서는 피실험자들이 영어 고모음들을 한국어의 어떤 모음으로 인지하여 대응시키는지를 알아보고자 하였다. 또한, 본 실험을 통하여 피실험자들이 영어의 고모음들을 한국어 모음들과 어느 정도 유사하다고 생각하는지에 관해서도 살펴보았다. 본 연구에서 실시한 인지 실험에 의하여 도출된 결과를 전체적으로 살펴보면 전설 긴장 고모음(high front tense vowel) /i/에 대한 한국어 모음 /이/의 대응률이 97.2%로 가장 높았고, 후설 이완 고모음(high back lax vowel) /U/에 대한 한국어 모음 /우/의 대응률이 42.5%로 가장 낮음을 알 수 있었다. 그리고 영어 모음과 한국어 모음의 유사도 부분에서는 대부분의 문항에서 3∼4 정도의 유사도(Likert 7점 Scale 사용)가 나온 것으로 보아서 한국어(경남 방언 화자) 피실험자들은 영어 모음 소리와 한국어 모음 소리 간에 중간 정도의 유사성이 있는 것으로 인식하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 결론적으로 본 연구를 통하여 경남방언을 구사하는 중학생 영어 학습자들은 영어의 긴장 모음을 영어의 이완 모음보다 더 잘 인지하여 대응시켰음을 알 수 있었다. 이러한 결과가 도출된 이유는 한국어 모음체계가 긴장성(tenseness)과 이완성(laxness)이라는 특징으로 명확히 구분되어 있지는 않지만, 한국어 모음들이 영어의 긴장 모음에 더 가깝기 때문일 것으로 판단된다. 따라서 한국인 영어 학습자들은 영어 모음체계의 인지 및 대응에서도 영어의 이완 모음보다는 긴장 모음을 더 잘 인지하여 이를 한국어 모음에 대응시킨 것으로 생각된다. The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception (mapping) of English high vowels /i, I, u, U/ of Korean EFL learners. The experiment subjects were 35 male middle school students who were born and have lived in South Kyungsang Korea. English high vowels are easy to be confused by Korean English learners thus these vowels were chosen as English target vowels for the current perception study. This study investigated how the subjects perceive these English high vowels and match them to what Korean vowels by carrying out the perception experiment. In addition, the current study implemented the test to look into the Korean subjects` perception concerning the degree of similarity between Korean and English high vowels which they listened to. The results are as follows. First, the English high front tense vowel /i/ is perceived as Korean vowel /이/ in 97.1% which is the highest mapping rate. The English high back lax vowel /U/ is perceived as Korean vowel /우/ in 42.5% which is the lowest mapping rate of this experiment. Second, in the case of the degree of similarity between English and Korean vowels, most South Kyungsang Korean subjects marked number 3 or 4 out of 1 (same as Korean) to 7 (totally different from Korean) Likert Scale. Thus, the subjects seemed to recognize only some degree of similarity between two different vowel systems. This study shows that South Kyungsang Korean middle school English learners have perceived and corresponded English high tense vowels better than English high lax vowels. That is, Korean vowel system does not distinguish tenseness and laxness distinctively, but the South Kyungsang Korean subjects mostly perceived English high tense vowels as Korean high tense vowels (97.1%) and they think the English vowels are somewhat similar to Korean vowels (3∼4 out of 7) even though they do not think Korean and English vowels are exactly the same. Therefore, South Kyungsang Korean English learners seem to perceive and match the English high tense vowels more easily than the lax vowels in the case of perception of English vowels and their mapping to Korean vowel system. This implies that South Kyungsang Korean EFL learners need to understand more accurately the vowel system of a target language when they learn the language. From the results of the present study, it does not seem to need a separate pronunciation education system for South Kyungsang Korean English learners. However, South Kyungsang Korean English learners need to be educated the difference between their native language (L1) and a second language (L2). Especially, it seems that South Kyungsang Korean English learners need a focused and intensive education for the acquisition of English lax vowels.

한국인 영어 학습자와 원어민의 긴장 및 이완 모음 발화이해도

이주경(Lee, Joo-Kyeong),이연우(Lee, Yeon-Woo) 한국음운론학회 2011 음성·음운·형태론 연구 Vol.17 No.3

This study attempts to investigate how correctly Korean learners can perceive native speakers’ production of the English high front tense and lax vowels /i/ and /I/ and high back tense and lax vowels /u/ and /U/ and also see how intelligible Korean speakers’ production of the tense and lax vowels is to native listeners. Two perception experiments were conducted. In the Korean learners’ identification task, 20 Koreans participated in identifying the target vowels which were produced by native speakers of English. Results showed that Korean learners identified the high back lax vowel significantly better than the corresponding tense vowel, but that the high front tense and lax vowels did not show a statistical difference. This might be due to the fact that the Korean high front vowel /i/ is more similar to the English tense vowel /i/ in terms of spectral features (F1 and F2) and that it is more likely to pattern with the English lax vowel /I/ in terms of duration. The spectral and durational conflict between the English front vowels /i/ and /I/ and the Korean vowel /i/ may negatively lead to Korean listeners’ confusion in identifying the English tense vs. lax vowels /i/ and /I/. In native listeners’identification task, the same stimuli recorded by Korean learners were identified by native listeners of English to measure Korean learners’ speech intelligibility of the English tense and lax vowels. Results showed that native listeners identified the lax vowels /I/ and /U/ more correctly than the tense vowels /i/ and /u/. This indicates that native listeners tend to rely more on the durational cues than spectral cues in identifying the English tense and lax vowels as Korean high vowels /i/ and /u/ are more similar to the English lax vowels in terms of duration rather than acoustic/spectral properties.

경남방언 남·여 화자의 영어 고모음 발화에 관한 연구

명윤미,이동명 한국언어과학회 2014 언어과학 Vol.21 No.1

The purpose of this study is to examine characteristics of English high vowels produced by South Kyungsang(SK) Korean (Busan dialect) speakers. The 10 SK Korean subjects who participated in this study are 5 male and 5 female university students. English target vowels for the current experiment, /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/, were acoustically analyzed based on the formant frequencies of the vowels using Praat speech analysis program. In order to observe the relationship between SK Korean single vowels and standard Korean single vowels, the formant frequencies of 7 Korean single vowels /ㅏ/, /ㅔ/, /ㅣ/, /ㅗ/, /ㅜ/, /ㅡ/, /ㅓ/ were also measured using Praat. The collected data of the present study were also compared to the formant frequencies reported in previous studies. The results are as follows: First, SK Korean speakers have difficulty in distinguishing English tense and lax pairs regardless of gender. Second, there was a statistical difference in terms of the production of English high vowels, /i/, /ʊ/, /u/ between SK Korean speakers and standard Korean speakers. Third, in the case of Korean high vowels, the difference of F2 values between SK Korean speakers and standard Korean speakers is more than 100 Hz, especially in the Korean high back vowel /ㅜ/. These results show that each Korean dialect causes variance in terms of the production of English vowels and Korean vowels.

English Speakers’ Identification of English High Back Vowels

윤영도 한국현대영어영문학회 2009 현대영어영문학 Vol.53 No.4

In this study I examine how American English speakers identify English high back vowels. Based on previous research I suspect that these vowels may have overlapped a little or are in the process of merging. I used a natural /U/ token and manipulated spectral steps and vowel durations of it to make an /u/-/U/ continuum. Total of 25 native speakers of American English participated in an identification test of this continuum. They were asked to choose either /u/ or /U/ when they heard the continuum. The statistical results show that they do not rely on vowel height but on vowel durations. This finding suggests that the American English high back vowels may have overlapped in the American English speakers’ vowel space.

The High Vowel Systems of Korean-English Bilingual Speakers

오은진 한국영어학회 2009 영어학 Vol.9 No.4

The main aim of this study was to investigate how high vowel systems are organized in early bilingual speakers of Korean and English, and late learners of English. The early bilinguals, who had been exposed to both languages from an early age, attained values more native-like for both Korean and English vowels than the late learners did, but it was not the case that they produced all the vowel categories with respective native values. For example, the F2 values of the bilinguals' /u/ were different from the /u/ of both Korean and English natives. Also, the bilinguals displayed tighter clustering for the distributions of English /u/ and [tu] than the native speakers, and this was interpreted to arise from their need to distinguish these from the Korean /u/. A similar pattern was exhibited with respect to the English /i/. Additionally, the late learners displayed /u/-fronting for English, and overlap in the regions of the Korean /i/, English /i/ and/or /ɪ/. These results were modeled in terms of theories of phonetics and phonetics acquisition, and it was concluded that the bilingual and learner phenomena are not simple enough to be explained by any one theory, and therefore a synthesis of theories is necessary.

English Speakers` Identification of English High Back Vowels

Yung Do Yun 한국현대영어영문학회 2009 현대영어영문학 Vol.53 No.4

In this study I examine how American English speakers identify English high back vowels. Based on previous research I suspect that these vowels may have overlapped a little or are in the process of merging. I used a natural /U/ token and manipulated spectral steps and vowel durations of it to make an /u/-/U/ continuum. Total of 25 native speakers of American English participated in an identification test of this continuum. They were asked to choose either /u/ or /U/ when they heard the continuum. The statistical results show that they do not rely on vowel height but on vowel durations. This finding suggests that the American English high back vowels may have overlapped in the American English speakers` vowel space. (Korea Nazarene University)

Vowel Quality and English Verb Stress

김효영 한국영어학회 2015 영어학 Vol.15 No.3

Kim, Hyo-young. 2015. Vowel Quality and English Verb Stress. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 15-3, 443-461. In this paper, vowel distributions of 3260 English monomorphemic verbs are examined to verify the claim that vowel height plays a considerable role in stress assignment in English. The claim was made by research on English nouns from a lexical database, CELEX(Baayen, Piepenbrock and Gulikers, 1995). It has found that vowel quality, especially vowel height, has a significant influence on stress location. Results of the current study provide further evidence for the claim that vowel height is related to stress location: First, lowness attracts stress; Second, a high front lax vowel, [ɪ], is the second frequent vowel in unstressed syllables following a schwa.; Third, in stressed light syllables, a mid vowel, [ɛ], appears most frequently while a low vowel [æ] is the most common vowel winning stress over a heavy syllable. These findings offer insights into the relations between phonetic properties of vowel phonemes and the nature of stress.

영어전설고모음 인식에 대한 ERP 실험연구

윤영도(Yun, Yungdo) 한국음성학회 2013 말소리와 음성과학 Vol.5 No.3

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is known to be a fronto-centrally negative component of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP). Naatanen et al. (1997) and Winkler et al. (1999) discuss that MMN acts as a cue to a phoneme perception in the ERP paradigm. In this study a perception experiment based on an ERP paradigm to check how Korean and American English speakers perceive the American English high front vowels was conducted. The study found that the MMN obtained from both Korean and American English speakers was shown around the same time after they heard F1s of English high front vowels. However, when the same groups heard English words containing them, the American English listeners" MMN was shown to be a little faster than the Korean listeners" MMN. These findings suggest that non-speech sounds, such as F1s of vowels, may be processed similarly across speakers of different languages; however, phonemes are processed differently; a native language phoneme is processed faster than a non-native language phoneme.

영어 전설고모음 반응시간과 인식

윤영도 현대영미어문학회 2011 현대영미어문학 Vol.29 No.3

This study examines how English and Korean speakers identify English high front vowels. Using the synthesized /i/-/ɪ/ continuum I tested whether they relied on spectral steps or vowel durations. I also checked the response times of this continuum. The perception experiments showed that English speakers relied on both spectral steps and vowel duration, whereas Koreans relied on vowel durations only. English speakers response time patterns were based on vowel durations. Korean speakers response times were also based on vowel durations but did not show consistent patterns. Korean speakers response times were faster than those of English speakers.