Perceptual Vowel Insertion in English-based Nonsense Words by Korean Learners

서미선,임자연 한국영어학회 2015 영어학 Vol.15 No.1

Seo, Misun & Lim, Jayeon. 2015. Perceptual Vowel Insertion in English-based Nonsense Words by Korean Learners. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics, 15-1, 021-042. This study explores the role of L1 constraints in sound perception in English-based nonsense words by Korean learners of English. Specifically, the study examined the effect of the unreleased coda constraint in Korean when perceiving word final palatal sibilants in English-based nonsense words. Korean learners in low and high levels of English proficiency participated in the study. The results showed that the learners with low proficiency levels in English were more likely to perceive the illusory vowel /i/ following a word final palatal sibilant in nonsense words. Their perception showed the influence of frication duration after a word final palatal sibilant. Compared to the high level learners, the low level learners were more sensitive to acoustic properties of frication noise of a word final palatal sibilant, yet incorrectly employed them as the cues to the vowel /i/. The high level learners showed a different pattern in that their perception was influenced by the relative duration of the vowel instead of frication duration. The results of the present study using English-based nonsense words indicate that Korean low-level learners of English are significantly under the influence of L1 constraints in L2 perception of word final palatal sibilants.

The perception of stops, nasals and liquids by Korean and English listeners

서미선 한국현대언어학회 2012 언어연구 Vol.28 No.3

The present study investigates factors influencing speech perception through Korean and English listeners' similarity judgement experiments of stops, nasals and liquids in the contexts of _l/n and l/n_. According to our results, factors influencing perception were phonological systems of contrast in listeners' native language, contexts in which a consonant occurs and phonetic similarity of two segments measured as manners and places of articulation of consonants. Two consonants were confusable to listeners when they are not contrastive in their native language. Listeners were better able to discriminate two onsets than codas. In addition, the members of heterorganic consonants were better discriminated than homorganic consonants, and a sonorant and an obstruent were more easily distinguished than two obstruents or two sonorants. The perceptual distances among consonants obtained from the similarity data showed that two consonants in a specific context were generally confusable to listeners when they are the input and the output of phonological change in their native language.

Partial Reduplication in Korean Revisited

서미선 고려대학교 언어정보연구소 2005 언어정보 Vol.6 No.-

경도의 단백뇨를 보이는 IgA 신증의 병리양상과 임상경과

서미선,권순효,박무용,최수정,노현진,김진국,한동철,황승덕 대한내과학회 2010 대한내과학회 추계학술대회 Vol.2010 No.-

소설의 구조적 수업방략 연구

서미선 서울대학교 대학원 국어교육연구회 1991 국어교육연구 Vol.43 No.-

The Effects of Lexical Knowledge and L1 on the Perception of English Sibilants by Korean Learners

서미선,임자연 한국응용언어학회 2009 응용 언어학 Vol.25 No.2

This paper investigates the role of lexical knowledge and L1 sound system in L2 perception of English sibilants (i.e., /s/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /z/, /ʒ/ and /ʤ/) by adult Korean learners. The findings indicate a positive influence of the lexical knowledge, L1-L2 mapping relations and their interaction. In the presence of lexical knowledge of the words they heard, learners' L2 perception showed improvement as measured by accuracy and reaction time. L1 influence on L2 perception was attested: Learners showed difficulty especially in cases where they had to categorize three L2 phonemes into one L1 phoneme or two L2 phonemes into the same two L1 phonemes. Learners displayed less difficulty when two different L2 phonemes were categorized as different L1 phonemes. L1-L2 mapping relations and lexical knowledge depended upon one another in that L1 influence was stronger in voiced pair types. Other factors such as L2 proficiency levels and positions of target sounds within words interacted with both lexical knowledge and L1-L2 mapping relations.

Factors Affecting L2 Production of English Affricates and Fricatives in Word-Final Position

서미선,임자연 한국현대영어영문학회 2023 현대영어영문학 Vol.67 No.1

This study examined the production of English words with the word-final contrasts of /ʃ/ vs. /ʃi/, /ʧ/ vs. /ʧi/, and /ʤ/ vs. /ʤi/ by Korean learners. Due to the patterns of Korean affricates and fricatives neutralized in word-final position, Korean learners were expected to show difficulties in producing the target contrasts and possibly show vowel insertion when the target words end in consonants (C-final words), mediated by proficiency levels and the voicing of consonants. Also, observations were made to see whether learners show progress as they made recordings of the same contrasts three times. To this end, twenty Korean learners at low and high English proficiency levels participated in the study. The results showed factors such as L2 proficiency and voicing of the consonants influenced the production. Specifically, higher accuracy was observed in the production of C-final words than those ending in vowels (V-final words). The result was contrary to the expectation from L1 phonology where affricates and fricatives are not allowed in final position. The result may have been mediated by word frequency since C-final words tend to be more frequent than V-final words in English. Finally, the high group’s production became more accurate as the multiple recordings were made, unlike the low group.

The influence of speech perception on French nasal vowel adaptation in Korean and English

서미선,박예슬 한국음운론학회 2011 음성·음운·형태론 연구 Vol.17 No.3

When a French nasal vowel is borrowed into Korean and English, it is adapted as an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant. When this process called 'unpacking' occurs, the nasal consonant following an oral vowel is realized as // in Korean and as /n/, /m/ or // in English. In this study we examine the role of speech perception on such different place realization patterns of a nasal consonant in Korean and English during the unpacking of a French nasal vowel. Results of a categorization experiment with Korean and English listeners conducted in this study indicate that the influence of speech perception plays a role but that speech perception is not the only factor affecting French nasal vowel adaptation. In addition to speech perception, other factors such as orthography and phonemic uniformity are found to be in play in the adaptation of a French nasal vowel in Korean and English.

Partial Reduplication in Korean Revisited

서미선 고려대학교 언어정보연구소 2005 언어정보 Vol.0 No.6

In Korean partial reduplication, in addition to the size and the location of the reduplicant, there are particularly two things which should be accounted for. The first one is why the reduplicant has unmarked CV syllable and thus the coda is excluded from copy while other syllable forms such as CVC, V, etc. are possible in the non-reduplicant. The second one is why aspirated and tense consonants are neutralized into plain consonants in onset position of the reduplicant while those consonants are neutralized only in coda position in the non-reduplicant. In Jun (1994), these two are accounted for by the repair strategy (referred to as Metrical Weight Consistency) to maintain the same number of feet in the output of partial reduplication as in the input. For this, Jun makes several problematic assumptions. Aspirated and tense consonants are considered as geminates and as for the represention of geminates in onset position, he assumes a mora which is only linked to a segment, but not to a syllable. Not only problematic ternary feet is assumed, but also Korean which is not a stress language is considered as having right-headed, unbounded and quantity-sensitive metrical feet and . And coda consonants are considered as moraic although there is no evidence for that. But in OT approach, none of these problematic assumptions are needed and two phenomena found in the reduplicant can be accounted for by ranking IO faithfulness over BR faithfulness. Also, two types of neutralization, coda laryngeal neutralization in the non-reduplicant and laryngeal neutralization in the reduplicant, can be accounted for as resulting from the interaction of IO faithfulness (Ident- laryngeal-IO) constraint with other constraints and thus as two aspects of same phenomenon while these two types of neutralization should be accounted for differently in Jun's metrical approach.

An Acoustic Study of English Voiced Sibilants: Correct vs. Incorrect L2 Production

서미선,임자연 한국영어어문교육학회 2011 영어어문교육 Vol.17 No.4

The present study analyzed Korean learners’ production of English /z/-/d/ and /z/-// contrasts in terms of native speaker judgments and acoustic measurements. Korean learner’s production was judged to be either correct or incorrect by native English speakers. Correct and incorrect productions were then compared with productions of native speakers’ in terms of acoustic analyses. The results indicated that Korean speakers’ correct production was more similar to that of native speakers by sharing more acoustic cues. Incorrect production by Korean speakers indicated patterns either different or opposite from that of native speakers, confirming native speaker judgments. The results also revealed acoustic cues on which native speakers rely in judging L2 speech, thereby implying that the more consistent along with more number of acoustic cues used by native speakers may facilitate the acquisition of segment contrasts by L2 learners.