The acquisition of phonetic details: Evidence from the production of English reduced vowels by Korean learners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acquisition of non-contrastive phonetic details of a second language. Reduced vowels in English are realized as a schwa or barred-i depending on their phonological contexts, but Korean has no reduced vowels. Two groups of Korean learners of English who differed according to the experience of residence in English-speaking countries and a group of English native speakers were asked to produce English reduced vowels in wordinitial, word-internal and word-final positions. The mean duration ratios, and the mean values and distribution patterns of F1/F2 of the reduced vowels were compared between the three groups, which revealed that Korean learners without residence experience tended to produce each variant of English reduced vowels as the corresponding full vowels, whereas those with experience displayed similar patterns to the natives. The present results suggest that it is possible for second language (L2) learners to learn the statistical properties in L2. KeywordsEnglish reduced vowels, acquisition of phonetic details, L2 production I IntroductionThe present study examines the acquisition of phonetic details in English by native Korean learners. Most previous studies of second language speech have focused on the acquisition of phonetic contrasts based on the similarities and differences between the sound systems of the native language (L1) and the second/foreign language (L2) (see Best, 1995). These studies assume or argue that having acquired the phonology of one

Interference in Acquisition of Phonology by Swahili-Speaking EFL Learners

“…Extensive research has delved into the interference of L1 phonology on the acquisition of L2 in both segmental and suprasegmental realms. Current and past studies consistently highlight that upon mastering the phonology of one language, learners often interpret sounds in a second language through the phonological lens of their L1 (Janssen, Segers, Mcqueen, & Verhoeven, 2017;Lloyd-Smith, Gyllstad, & Kupisch, 2017;Han, Hwang, & Choi, 2011;Major, 2008). These findings demonstrate that L2 speakers struggle to produce certain phonetic contrasts in L2 that are absent in L1 in the same manner as native speakers.…”

Processing nonnative consonant clusters in the classroom: Perception and production of phonetic detail

“…A difficult aspect of L2 speech learning is acquiring the phonetic implementation of phonemes and sequences in the new language (Bradlow, 2008; Flege, 1987; Flege and Dravidian, 1984; Flege and Hillenbrand, 1984; Han et al, 2011; Hazan and Boulakia, 1993; Zampini, 2008). Importantly, successful L2 acquisition requires learners to determine both whether the acoustic detail that they are presented with corresponds to contrastive phonemic categories, and what the proper range of acoustic variability is for the phonological categories in the L2.…”

The Effect of Phonetic Training on the Perception and the Production of L1-Related Difficult Sounds in ESL

“…one was four listening activities, with each followed by five questions. These studies showed that Korean ESL learners have difficulty pronouncing particular vowel sounds, schwa and barred-i due to the lack of existence of the vowel sounds in Korean (Han, Hwang, and Choi, 2011 administered a study to test whether there is a different degree of improvement in the production of a variety of problematic consonants by English speakers learning Spanish when exposed to explicit pronunciation instruction on the one hand and implicit treatment on the other with similar input, practice, and feedback. Ninety-five participants who were not tested for proficiency participated in this study and were called as first-, second-, and third-year learners.…”

“…Pronunciation is the domain where a L1 influences a second language acquisition. It has been accepted that second language learners would perceive the L2 sounds based on their L1, concentrating more on the phonetic contrasts between the L1 and the L2 (Han, Hwang & Choi, 2011). Each language has different phonetic features, and they affect a second language pronunciation when a second language learner from a particular language tries to learn a second language.…”

“…"For example, pertaining to the present study, typical influences of Korean phonology on the production of English include adaptations of consonant clusters, strategies for mapping Korean's series of three stop consonants to English's two, mapping English dental and labiodental fricatives to Korean stops, vowel epenthesis, and mapping English's two liquid consonants to allophones of Korean's one" (as cited in Kim & Billington, 2018, p. 141). Han, Hwang, and Choi (2011) examined a study where native Korean speakers participated to identify whether they were able to produce reduced vowels knowns as a schwa or barred-i, which does not exist in Korean. Twenty nine native Korean speakers participated in the study, and they were divided into two groups depending on their residence length in English speaking countries: fourteen participants were grouped as the RA group meaning "residence abroad more than a year," and fifteen participants were grouped as the No RA group meaning "no residence abroad.…”