Phonetic analysis of Korean elementary students who had overseas study at early ages

Abstract

Purpose: The number of the repatriated Korean students who had overseas study at early ages is increasing. They received foreign education, they can speak international languages, but they have many difficulties in articulation and intonation of the Korean language. This study aims to measure closure and aspiration duration, length of consonants, length of sub- sequent vowels, and ratio of consonants against subsequent vowels in vowel consonant vowel (VCV) syllables. - - Methods: This study compares the acoustic and phonetic characteristics of repatriated and native students, the ratio of articulation error of Korean plosives, the closure and aspiration duration, and the ratio of the aspiration duration against the closure duration. Results :The ratio of articulation error of Korean plosives between repatriated and native students is 19% and 2%, respec- tively. The closure duration was significantly longer in repatriated students than in native students. The aspiration duration was significantly longer in repatriated students than in native students. No difference was found in the ratio of aspiration duration against closure duration between the native and repatriated students. Conclusion :This study can be a good reference for estimating the phonetic difficulties of Korean elementary students who had overseas study at early ages. (Korean J Pediatr 2010;53:579-584)