Phonetics and Speech Sciences (말소리와 음성과학)

Korean Society of Speech Sciences (한국음성학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

An Experimental Study of Vowel Epenthesis among Korean Learners of English

한국인 영어학습자의 모음삽입현상에 대한 연구

  • 신동진 (한국외국어대학교 음성언어연구센터) ;
  • Received : 2014.05.01
  • Accepted : 2014.06.11
  • Published : 2014.06.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

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.

Keywords

References

  1. Bench, J., Kowal, A. &Bamford, J. (1979). The BKB (Bamford-Kowal-Bench) sentence lists for partially-hearing children. British Journal of Audiology, 13, 108-112. https://doi.org/10.3109/03005367909078884
  2. Borden, G., Gerber, A., &Milsark, G. (1983).Production and perception of the /r/-/l/ Contrast in Korean Adults Learning English. Language Learning, 33(3), 449-526. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1983.tb00944.x
  3. Bradlow, A. R., Pisoni, D. B., Yamada, R.A. &Tohkura, Y. (1997) Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/ IV: Some effects of perceptual learning on speech production. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 101, 2299-2310. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.418276
  4. Chang, Y., Hong, J., & Halle, P., (2007). English cluster perception by Taiwanese Mandarin speakers. Proceedings of International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrucken, Germany.
  5. Nasir, S. N. & Ostry, D.,J. (2009) Auditory plasticity and speech motor learning. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United State of America, 106, 20470-20475. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0907032106
  6. Davidson, L. (2011) Phonetic, Phonemic & Phonological factors in cross-language discrimination of phonotactic contrasts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(1), 270-282. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020988
  7. De Wet, F. Van der Walt, C., Niesler, T.R. (2009) Automatic assessment of oral language proficiency and listening comprehension. Speech Commnunication, 51, 864-874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2009.03.002
  8. Dupoux, E., Hirose, Y., Kakehi, K., Pallier, C. &Mehler, J. (1999) Epenthetic Vowels in Japanese: A Perceptual Illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human, Perception and Performance. 25(6).1568-1578. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.25.6.1568
  9. Flege, J., E. & Eefting, W. (1987) Cross-language switching in stop consonant perception and production by Dutch speakers of English. Speech Communication, 6. 185-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-6393(87)90025-2
  10. Flege, J.E. (1993). Production and perception of a novel, second-language phonetic contrast. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 93, 1589-1608. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.406818
  11. Funatsu, S., Imaizumi, S., Fujimoto, M., Hashizume, A. and Kurisu, K. (2008). Do Japanese speakers perceive nonexistent vowels in non-native consonant clusters? Proceedings of Acoustics'08, Paris, France.
  12. Goto, H. (1971). Auditory perception by normal Japanese adults of the sounds "L" and "R". Neuropsuchologia, 9, 317-323. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(71)90027-3
  13. Gass, S. (1984) Development of speech perception & speech production abilities in adult second language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 5, 51-74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400004835
  14. Han, J.I. (1996) The effects of pronunciation - based listening practice on Korean EFL learners. Journal of English Education, Vol 51, No. 4, 36 - 56.
  15. Huckvale, M., (2004). ACCDIST: A metric for comparing speakers' accent. Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Jeju, Korea.
  16. Huckvale, M., (2007).Hierachical clustering of speakers into accents with the accdist metric. Proceedings of International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrucken, Germany.
  17. Hong, S.Y. (2010) A phonetic study on the prosodic realization of Korean English utterance. Journal of Human Studies, 26, 243-276 (in Korean)
  18. Iverson, P. & Evans, G. B. (2009) Learning English vowels with different first-language vowel systems II: Auditory training for native Spanish and German speakers. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 126, 866-877. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3148196
  19. Jang, T.Y. (2009) Rhythm Metrics of Spoken Korean. Language & Linguistics. 46, 169-186.
  20. Kabak, B. &Idsardi, W. (2003).Syllabically conditioned perceptual epenthesis. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 29, 233-245.
  21. Kabak, B. & W. Idsardi. (2007). Perceptual distortions in the adaptation of English consonant clusters: Syllable structure or consonantal contact constraints? Language and Speech 50(1), 23-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309070500010201
  22. Koo, H.S & Oh, Y.J. (2001) An analysis of English vowels of Korean learners of English & English native speakers. Journal of the research of Korean education, 16, 1- 12 (in Korean).
  23. Kwak, D.G. & Shin, S.E. (2005) A study on the Korean students' recognition for the English fricatives. Education research studies, 1-24 (in Korean).
  24. Lee, J.K. & Lee, Y.W. (2011) Speech intelligibility of Korean learners' & a native English speaker's production of English tense & lax vowels: Focusing on high vowels. Studies in Phonetics, Phonology & Morphology, 17(3) 497-520. (in Korean) https://doi.org/10.17959/sppm.2011.17.3.497
  25. Nasir, S. N. &Ostry, D.,J. (2009) Auditory plasticity & speech motor learning. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United State of America, 106, 20470-20475. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0907032106
  26. Parlato-Oliveira, E., Christophe, A., Hirose, Y., &Dupoux, E. (2010) Plasticity of illusory vowel perception in Brazilian-Japanese bilinguals. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 127(6), 3738-3748. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3327792
  27. Pinet, M., Iverson, P. &Huckvale, M. (2010) Second-language experience & speech-in-noise recognition: Effects of talker-listener accent similarity. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 128(3), 1357-1365 https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3466857
  28. Ramirez C.J. (2006) Acoustic & perceptual characterization of the epenthetic Vowel between the clusters formed by consonant + Liquid in Spanish. Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonetics & Phonology. 48-61.
  29. Rauber, A.S., Escudero, P., Ricardo A. H. Bion, R. A. H., &Baptista O.B. (2005) The Interrelation between the perception & production of English vowels by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Proceedings of Interspeech, 2913 -2916.
  30. Van Donselaar, W., Kuijpers, C., & Cutler, A. (1999) Faciliatory Effects of Vowel epenthesis on word processing in Dutch. Journal of Memory & Language 41, 59-77. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2635
  31. Sheldon.A. (1985). The relationship between production and perception of the /r/-/l/ contrast in Korean Adults learning English: A reply to Borden, Gerber and Milsark. Language Learning, 35(1), 107-133. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1985.tb01018.x
  32. Sheldon, A. & Strange, W. (1982). The acquisition of /r/ and /l/ by Japanese learners of English: Evidence that speech production can precede speech perception. Applied Psycholinguistics, 3, 243-261. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400001417
  33. Shelton, R., L. and Johnson, A., F. (1977). Delayed judgment speech sound discrimination and /r/ or /s/ articulation status and improvement. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 20, 704-717. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2004.704
  34. Shibuya, Y., & Erickson, D., (2010). Consonant cluster production in Japanese learners of English. Proceedings of Interspeech 2010, Makuhari, Japan.
  35. White, L. &M attys, S.L. (2007). Calibrating rhythm: First language & second language studies. Journal of Phonetics, 35, 501-522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2007.02.003

Cited by

  1. A Link between Perceived and Produced Vowel Spaces of Korean Learners of English vol.6, pp.3, 2014, https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2014.6.3.081