• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.6
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• pp.35-47
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• 2000

This study questions the validity of Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) in EFL Learning. A ten-minute grammaticality judgement test involving resumptive pronouns in English relative clauses was given to 15 female subjects. The research results, which were analysed in terns of language transfer and universalist arguments, support the existence of a universal process that guides L2 learning, and some common developmental patterns between the two processes of L1 and L2 learning. Hence, the universalist view should be given at least equal Weight as the CLI approach.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.213-235
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to present preliminary results from an ongoing large-scale study of English-language future goal orientations held by Japanese university students. The work here involves an investigation of learners in multiple disciplines, from five universities, both public and private, in the Kanto-region of Japan, and their perspective on their future use of English. The results summarize written essays on L2-goal orientations. Preliminary results indicate Japanese learners (n = 629) as a whole have disparate L2-learning goals; however, these can be summarized into four broad categories: career, personal life, study, and general; and early findings indicate that most learners (63.56%) are oriented to career or personal goal orientations, while others are oriented to study and general. These early results help us to gain a better understanding of the future goals of Japanese university learners and their views of English usage in the future.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-52
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• 2001

A bilingual sound dictionary in Korean and English has been created for a broad range of sound reference to cross-linguistic, dialectal, native language (L1)-transferred biological and allophonic variations. The paper demonstrates that the pronunciation dictionary of the lexicon is inadequate for sound reference due to the preponderance of unmarked sounds. The audio registry consists of the three-way comparison of 1) English speech from native English speakers, 2) Korean speech from Korean speakers, and 3) English speech from Korean speakers. Several sub-dictionaries have been created as the foundation research for independent development. They are 1) a pronunciation dictionary of the Korean lexicon in a keyboard-compatible phonetic transcription, 2) a sound dictionary of L1-interfered language, and 3) an audible dictionary of Korean sounds. The dictionary was designed to facilitate the exchange of the speech signal and its corresponding text data on various media particularly on CD-ROM. The methodology and findings of the construction are discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.579-587
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean learners perceive English vowels and further to test SLM which claims that new L2 vowel categories are more easily acquired than similar L2 vowel categories. Twenty Korean learners participated in English-to-Korean mapping test and English vowel identification test with target vowels /i, ɪ, u, ʊ, ɛ, æ/. The result revealed that Korean participants mapped the English pairs /i/-/ɪ/ and /u/-/ʊ/ onto single Korean vowel /i/ and /u/, respectively. in addition, both of English /ɛ/ and /æ/ were simultaneously mapped onto Korean /e/ and /ɛ/. This indicated that the Korean participants seemed to have perceptual difficulty for the pairs /i-ɪ/, /u-ʊ/, and /ɛ-æ/. The result of the forced-choice identification test showed that the accuracy of /ɪ, ʊ, æ/(ɪ: 81.3%, ʊ: 62.5%, æ: 60.0%) was significantly higher than that of /i, u, ɛ/(i: 28,8%, u: 28.8%, ɛ: 32.4%). Thus, the claim of SLM is confirmed given that /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ are new vowel categories whereas /i, u, ɛ/ are similar vowel categories. Further, the conspicuously low accuracy of the similar L2 vowel categories /i, u, ɛ/ was accounted for by over-generalization whereby the Korean participants excessively replaced L2 similar /i, u, ɛ/ with L2 new /ɪ, ʊ, æ/ as the participants were learning the L2 new vowel categories in the process of acquisition. Based on the findings this study, pedagogical suggestions are provided.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.27-40
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• 2020

In this paper, we investigate the correlation between the amount of English sentences that Korean English learners (L2ers) are exposed to and their sentence processing patterns by examining what Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) language models (LMs) can learn about implicit syntactic relationship: that is, the filler-gap dependency. The filler-gap dependency refers to a relationship between a (wh-)filler, which is a wh-phrase like 'what' or 'who' overtly in clause-peripheral position, and its gap in clause-internal position, which is an invisible, empty syntactic position to be filled by the (wh-)filler for proper interpretation. Here to implement L2ers' English learning, we build LSTM LMs that in turn learn a subset of the known restrictions on the filler-gap dependency from English sentences in the L2 corpus that L2ers can potentially encounter in their English learning. Examining LSTM LMs' behaviors on controlled sentences designed with the filler-gap dependency, we show the characteristics of L2ers' sentence processing using the information-theoretic metric of surprisal that quantifies violations of the filler-gap dependency or wh-licensing interaction effects. Furthermore, comparing L2ers' LMs with native speakers' LM in light of processing the filler-gap dependency, we not only note that in their sentence processing both L2ers' LM and native speakers' LM can track abstract syntactic structures involved in the filler-gap dependency, but also show using linear mixed-effects regression models that there exist significant differences between them in processing such a dependency.

• 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.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.77-88
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• 2011

Foreign accent in second language production depends heavily on the transfer of features from the first language. This study examines acoustic variations in segments and suprasegments by native and nonnative speakers of English, searching for patterns of the transfer and plausible indexes of foreign accent in English. The acoustic variations are analyzed with recorded read speech by 20 native English speakers and 50 Korean learners of English, in terms of vowel formants, vowel duration, and syllabic variation induced by stress. The results show that the acoustic measurements of vowel formants and vowel and syllable durations display difference between native speakers and nonnative speakers. The difference is robust in the production of lax vowels, diphthongs, and stressed syllables, namely the English-specific features. L1 transfer on L2 specification is found both at the segmental levels and at the suprasegmental levels. The transfer levels measured as groups and individuals further show a continuum of divergence from the native-like target. Overall, the eldest group, students who are in the graduate schools, shows more native-like patterns, suggesting weaker foreign accent in English, whereas the high school students tend to involve larger deviation from the native speakers' patterns. Individual results show interdependence between segmental transfer and prosodic transfer, and correlation with self-reported proficiency levels. Additionally, experience factors in English such as length of English study and length of residence in English speaking countries are further discussed as factors to explain the acoustic variation.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2019

This study examines the voice onset times (VOTs) of Korean stops produced by Korean learners of English with high language proficiency and long L2 exposure (i.e., Korean-English bilinguals) to assess whether the VOTs of their lax and aspirated stops are merging and, if so, which types of stops are being changed. Thirteen Korean speakers (six female and seven male) who had studied in the USA for more than three to ten years participated. The results show that the speakers in this study with long L2 exposure are participating in the VOT merger, in which VOTs for aspirated stops are reduced while those for lax stops are increased. In other words, change in VOT affects not only aspirated stops but also lax stops. The results indicate that L1 phonetic drift may not be primarily affected by the amount of L2 exposure, and language contact may not be the primary factor triggering a sound change in the Korean stop system. Further study is necessary focusing on the phonetic shift of the "lax" category because it may play a pivotal role in a tonogenetic-like sound change in present-day Korean.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.9-17
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• 2020

Changes in the first language (L1) sound system as a result of acquiring a second language (L2) (i.e., phonetic drift) have received considerable attention from a variety of speakers, settings, and environments. Less attention has been given to phonetic drift in adult speakers' L2 learning as their length of residence in America (LOR) increases. This study examines the effects of LOR on voice onset time (VOT) in L1 Korean stops. Three different groups of Korean adult learners of L2 English were compared to assess how malleable their L1 representations are in terms of LOR and whether there is any relationship between L1 change and L2 acquisition. The results showed that the effect of LOR was linguistically unimportant in the production of Korean stops. However, VOT merger as evidence of sound change in Korean stops were robust in the speech production of most of the female speakers across the groups. The results suggest that L2 English may not be the primary cause of L1 sound change. For generalizability, further study is necessary to see whether other acoustic cues show a similar pattern.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.7-26
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• 1997

An electromyographic device was used to investigate the relationship between a linguistic hypothesis of tense-lax distinction and muscular activity. Muscle action potentials of the orbicularis oris muscle and the depressor anguli oris muscle were obtained from four subjects using CVCVCV and CVCVC words in English and VCV and CVC words in Korean. Findings: The hypothesis that the speaker may select at least one of muscles involved in the articulation of a phoneme so that the selected muscle could be activated for tense-lax distinction, and either a timing variable or an amplitude variablethe and/or both from the selected muscle distinguish(es) /p/ from /b/ in English and /$p^{h},\;p^{l}$/ from /p/ in Korean, with the English /p/ and the Korean /$p^{h},\;p^{l}$/ being tense, and the Korean unaspirated /p/ and the English /b/ lax, has been verified, except for the case with subject 2 in stressed syllables in English. (2) Thus, the linguistic hypothesis of tense-lax distinction was strongly supported by the muscular activities during the Korean bilabial stops, with /$p^{h}\;and\;p^{l}$/ being tense and /p/ lax. (3) Considering the intermuscle compensation and the interspeaker variabilities in the choice of a muscle or muscles, in English the usability of the feature 'tensity' appeared to be positive rather than negative although further investigations with more subjects remain to take on the muscles associated with the onset/offset of the labial closure, including the respiratory muscles related with the aspiration. The phoneme-sensitive EMG manifestations of stress and possible reasons for the interspeaker variabilities are discussed.