• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.91-99
• /
• 2010

This paper reports on an identification test where KFL learners identified the Korean three-way laryngeal contrast in the phrase-initial position, when the phrase-initial tone was systematically manipulated. It turns out that heritage learners have some sensitivity to phrase-initial tone and show a plain-aspirated alternation in their identification according to the phrase-initial tone, as native speakers do, whereas non-heritage students do not show such tone sensitivity. However, after a weekly prosody training, second-year non-heritage students have shown a significant improvement in their performance. This paper clearly shows that the phrase-initial tone plays a critical role in distinguishing laryngeal features of Korean obstruents, and also suggests that prosody including the tone-segment correlation should be incorporated in the KFL curriculum.

• The Journal of Learner-Centered Curriculum and Instruction (JLCCI)
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.721-743
• /
• 2018

The aim of this study is to compare the speech act realization of KFL(Korean as a Foreign Language) learners and native Korean speakers in situations which required apologies. 15 KFL learners(advanced level) and 15 native korean speakers participated in the study and the data were collected through a Dicourse Completion Test(DCT) and questionnaires. The answers of the subjects were calculated and their frequencies were taken to find out whether there are similarities and differences between two groups. Although this study revealed that KFL learners approach native speakers norms in using apologies, the result also showed that the use of apology strategies was different depending on the situation: Using Internal/External modifiers, address, repeated IFID.

• Journal of Korean language education
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.199-222
• /
• 2018

This study attempts to apply process drama in teaching Korean speaking. For that goal, the first part of the study introduces the main features of process drama exploring the possible use of teaching Korean speaking, and the second part presents a concrete example of developing a unit of the Sejong intermediate Korean conversation coursebook which was designed using a process drama method. Process drama is a process-oriented drama activity which progresses only with the teacher and students' spontaneous participation. With its unique meaning-oriented interaction paradigm, it has been suggested as an effective way of teaching and learning a foreign language. Since it emphasizes students' spontaneity, cooperation, and authentic communication, it commonly provides plenty of opportunities for students to interact in a meaningful context. Despite its effectiveness in teaching speaking, it has rarely been used in KFL contexts. Considering the limited opportunities to practice speaking in KFL classrooms, using a communication-rich activity such as process drama would be an optimal solution. This study, therefore, examines possible application of process drama in teaching Korean speaking, and introduces sample speaking materials designed for KFL intermediate learners.

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

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.53-62
• /
• 2016

In this study, we examined whether Chinese learners of Korean can correctly produce the phonological process on the lexical and post-lexical level. For this purpose 4 Korean native speakers and 10 advanced and 10 intermediate Chinese learners of Korean participated in the production test. The materials analyzed constituted 10 Korean sentences in which nasalization can be applied on the syllable boundary, word boundary(w-boundary) as well as accentual phrase boundary(AP-boundary). The results show that for Korean speakers, nasalization was applied 100% at all level whereas for Chinese speakers, the rate of application of nasalization is different according to prosodic constituents and Korean proficiency. Nasalization was more frequently applied at the lexical level than the post-lexical level, and it is more frequent in the w-boundary conditions than in the AP-boundary conditions. However, the rate of nasalization in the w-boundary is close to the lexical level. The pronunciation errors were committed either as non application of nasalization or coda obstruent ommission. In the case of non application of nasalization, Chinese learners of Korean produced the target syllables as underling forms, which were not transformed as surface forms. In addition, we can observe the ommission of coda obstruents in 'lenis obstruents+nasal sound' sequences. As a result, nasalization is blocked by this omission.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.121-128
• /
• 2013

In Korean, wh-question and indefinite yes-no questions have the same morphemic and syntactic structure. In speech, however, these two types of questions are distinguished by a prosodic difference. In this study, we examined if Chinese Korean leaners can distinguish between these two types of questions in production and if they can correctly perceive the different meaning of a question based on the prosodic information. For this purpose, we analysed two types of interrogative sentences produced by 5 native speakers and 15 Chinese Korean language leaners. The results show that the 5 Korean native speakers produce two types of questions by a salient prosodic difference, i.e., difference of prosodic structure, different pitch range of wh-phrase and indefinite phrase, and different boundary tone. However, for the 15 Chinese speakers, the two types of questions were not distinguished by the same prosodic features but in the perception analysis they were able to distinguish between the two types of questions easily.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2020

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptive aspects of the polysemic sentence final ending "-(eu)lgeol" produced by Chinese Korean learners. "-(Eu)lgeol" has two different meanings, that is, a guess and a regret, and these different meanings are expressed by the different prosodic features of the last syllable of "-(eu)lgeol". To examine how Korean native speakers perceive "-(eu)lgeol" sentences produced by Chinese Korean learners and the most saliant prosodic variable for the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" at the perceptive level, we performed a perceptual experiment. The analysed material constituted four Korean sentences containing "-(eu)lgeol" in which two sentences expressed guesses and the other two expressed regret. Twenty-five Korean native speakers participated in the perceptual experiment. Participants were asked to mark whether "-(eu)lgeol" sentences they listened to were (1) definitely regrets, (2) probably regrets, (3) ambiguous, (4) probably guesses, or (5) definitely guesses based on the prosodic features of the last syllable of "-(eu)lgeol". The analysed prosodic variables were sentence boundary tones, slopes of boundary tones, pitch difference between sentence-final and penultimate syllables, and pitch levels of boundary tones. The results show that all the analysed prosodic variables are significantly correlated with the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" and among these prosodic variables, the most salient role in the semantic discrimination of "-(eu)lgeol" is pitch difference between sentence-final syllable and penultimate syllable.