This study attempts to investigate whether Korean young EFL learners could differently perceive the difference between English tense and lax vowels (/i/-/ɪ/) with the voicing contrast in the postvocalic consonants. Two perception tests (4I-oddity test and Identification test) are conducted with the following research questions. 1) Do Korean young EFL learners show any difference in correctly discriminating tense and lax vowels according to the voicing contrast in postvocalic consonants at the auditory level? 2) Do they differently identify English tense and lax vowels according to voicing contrasts at the phonological level? 3) Do they differently identify English tense and lax vowels according to different manners of articulation (stops vs. fricatives)? For each experimental test, 11 Korean speakers and 5 native speakers (as a control group) participate in the study. The main findings from the tests are as follows. First, Korean learners perform as well in the 4I-oddity discrimination test as native speakers do, while more poorly performing in the identification test. Second, Korean learners did not use vowel length as an acoustic cue to differentiate between English tense and lax vowels in both perception tests regardless of voicing contrasts or manner of articulation in postvocalic consonants. According to these findings, the study concludes that the absent feature of vowel length in the L1 does not facilitate Korean speakers’ accurate perception of English tense and lax vowels at the phonological level.
목차
Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Method 2.1 Participants 2.2 Materials 2.3 Procedure 2.4 Data analysis 3. Result 3.1 4I-oddity discrimination test 3.2 Identification test 4. Discussion & Conclusion References Appendix
키워드
English tense/lax vowelsvoicing contrastpostvocalic consonantsperception test4I-oddity testidentification test
저자
Lim, Youngshin [ Korea Polytechnic College / Lecturer ]
한국언어연구학회 [The Korean Association of Language Studies]
설립연도
1996
분야
인문학>언어학
소개
한국언어연구학회는 언어학과 언어교육 분야의 연구를 통하하여 학문의 질적 향상과 국내외 회원 및 학회간의 학술 교류와 친목을 도모한다. 이를 위해 학술 연구 발표회, 강연회, 강습회를 개최하고, 정기학회지, 연구보고서, 서적 등을 간행하며, 그 밖에 지역사회에 필요한 사업과 연구 활동을 수행하는데 중점을 두고 있다.