Korean Speakers Of English Research Articles

Comment Markers in Spoken English in Korea

The present study examines the use of four categories of comment markers among Korean speakers of English, a category of grammatical items whose use is prompted by pragmatic factors, using the data from the elicited conversation in English. Previous research on comment markers has suggested that comment markers are more frequent in the Inner Circle varieties than in the Outer Circle varieties and that there are systematic differences in the distribution of comment markers between Kachru’s Inner and Outer Circles. Since English is learned and used as an important foreign language in Korea, Korean society which belongs to the Expanding Circle is a suitable context for research on world Englishes and English as a lingua franca as well. Findings from the data analysis indicate that the use of comment markers among Korean speakers of English displays similar features with that of the Outer Circle varieties of English, especially East Asian varieties. Epistemic markers constitute the most sizable subcategory and the frequency of hearsay markers are relatively high raking the second in the data. The implications of the findings for the stylistic preferences and areal co-patterning are suggested. This paper contributes to the body of comment markers across the world Englishes.

I think and I don’t know as Stance-Taking Markers among Korean Speakers of English

I think and I don’t know as Stance-Taking Markers among Korean Speakers of English

Enhancement of laryngeal contrasts in non-native English clear speech: a comparison between L2-immersed sequential bilinguals and L1-immersed speakers.

Clear speech, a speaking style used to mitigate communicative circumstances affecting the transmission or decoding of speech signal, often involves the enhancement of language-specific phonological contrasts, including laryngeal contrasts. This study investigates the role of language dominance in the implementation of language-specific laryngeal contrasts in L2 clear speech. Two groups of Korean-English speakers (L1 Korean) were tested: a relatively less Korean-dominant L2-immersed group of sequential bilinguals (N = 30) and a strongly Korean-dominant L1-immersed group (N = 30), with dominance assessed based on the results of the Bilingual Language Profile. Participants read a set of English minimal pairs differing in the voicing of word-initial stops (e.g., tab vs. dab), and their acoustic enhancement strategies were compared with those of native English speakers (N = 20). As correlates of the English laryngeal contrast, voice onset time (VOT) and onset f0 were measured. Results showed that both bilingual groups enhanced English laryngeal contrast in clear speech via voiceless VOT lengthening, similarly to native English speakers, but to a smaller extent than native speakers. Both bilingual groups also implemented a greater degree of onset f0 difference between voiced and voiced English stops than native English speakers did, although no enhancement of this parameter was observed in their clear speech. Surprisingly, no significant differences were found between L2- and L1-immersed speakers, suggesting a lack of language immersion effect on the acoustic enhancement strategies in L2 clear speech. We discuss possible explanations for this finding and propose directions for future research.

Think and You Know as Discourse Markers among Korean Speakers of English

The present study examines I think and you know as discourse markers among Korean English speakers, using data from sociolinguistic interviews. Previous research on I think and you know has suggested that they are highly frequent among native speakers but much less used by non-native speakers and that particularly you know among nonnative speakers is rather used for discourse-organizational purposes not for intersubjectivity. Since English is learned and used as an important foreign language in Korea, Korean society is a remarkable context for research on both world Englishes and English as a lingua franca. Especially in the context of English as a lingua franca. In ELF interaction, I think and you know as discourse markers have been demonstrated to be used for marking speaker-centered and subjectivity, though they are used differently by native English speakers. The data analysis reveals that the use of I think and you know among Korean speakers of English is similar to that in other ELF communication. Both are used as discourse-pragmatic markers to convey speakercentered attitude as fumbling device and express subjectivity in evaluating part of the discourse. This paper contributes to the growing body of discourse markers analyzed through a systematic and replicable methodology.

Effects of Native Translation Frequency and L2 Proficiency on L2 word Recognition: Evidence from Korean Speakers of English as a Foreign Language.

The goal of this study was to examine how the lexical characteristics of L1 translated words affect L2 word recognition by Korean speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different English proficiency levels. To this end, we conducted a lexical decision task, in which participants decided whether English strings were words or nonwords. The experiment had three critical conditions: (1) English words that only had a loanword translation in Korean (e.g., card), (2) English words whose native word translation had a lower frequency than their loanword translation (e.g., coat), and (3) English words whose native word translation had a higher frequency than their loanword translation (e.g., cash). Results showed that English words whose native word translations in Korean were of high frequency were recognized faster than those with low frequency native word translations. More interestingly, the L1 native word frequency effect was stronger for speakers with lower English proficiency than for more proficient EFL speakers. These findings are discussed with respect to L2 lexical processing models.

Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language: Theories and Practices

Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language: Theories and Practices

The Effect of Ethnicity on Identification of Korean American Speech

Research on ethnic varieties of American English has found that listeners can identify speaker ethnicity from voice alone at above-chance rates. This study aims to extend this research by focusing on the perception of race and ethnicity in the voices of ethnically Korean speakers of English. Bilingual Korean Americans in California provided samples of English speech that were rated by 105 listeners. Listeners rated the speakers on their likelihood of being a certain race or ethnicity (including Asian and White). Listeners who were Korean themselves rated the speakers as more likely to be Asian and Korean, whereas non-Asian listeners rated the speakers as more likely to be White. Non-Asian listeners also demonstrated a negative correlation between rating a voice as Asian and rating a voice as belonging to a native-born American, while Asian listeners did not. Finally, a positive correlation between pitch and perceived Asianness was found for female speakers, corresponding to listeners’ metalinguistic commentary about the hallmarks and stereotypes of Asian or Asian American speech. The findings implicate the listener’s own ethnic identity and familiarity with a speech variety as an important factor in sociolinguistic perception.

Likein Korean English speech

This article focuses on the use of like by Korean speakers of English. South Korea is a fascinating context for world Englishes studies: English is generally learned as a foreign language, but deep political and historical ties facilitate a high visibility and prominent status of the language in Korean society. In this study, the use of like by Korean speakers of English with particular attention to discourse-pragmatic aspects are investigated with the help of the Spoken Korean English Corpus (SPOKE). Like is a high frequency item in SPOKE and clearly forms part of the Korean English repertoire across its functional range. Even though usage of like as discourse marker and particle is influenced by having spent time abroad and (self-reported) English proficiency, it forms part of the repertoire of nearly all surveyed speakers. Quotative like has also found a place in the Korean English repertoire, albeit to a lesser degree.

Korean English Teachers’ Perceptions of Intelligibility and Comprehensibility towards Erroneous Phonemes: In Terms of Functional Load and Attitude

This study aims (1) to investigate Korean English teachers’ (KET) intelligibility and comprehensibility of typical erroneous phonemes of Korean English speakers and (2) to discover the effect of teachers’ attitudes on comprehensibility grading. The erroneous phonemes were classified in terms of functional load (FL) and syllabicity to specifically identify the difference. Native speakers’ data were used as a baseline to find KETs’ traits. In the intelligibility task, the high FL affected only the KETs negatively when the erroneous phonemes were vowels. However, in the comprehensibility task, the negative influence of the high FL was not significant for KETs. Instead, the scores were invariably higher for words with vowel errors. The research findings suggest that KETs made the wrong assumption that they comfortably understood words with high FL vowel errors. Regarding the effect of teachers’ attitude, KETs with low willingness to accept World Englishes (WEes) in class gave significantly lower scores to the words with high FL errors when they were vowels. Given the lower intelligibility score for the error type, the stricter grading of the low WEes acceptance group appears to be more valid. The findings suggest that KETs might make misjudgments on pronunciation errors due to their overly high WEes acceptance tendency.

Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of Korean English Speakers’ Phonological Features in Lingua Franca Listening Contexts

This study investigated L2 English listeners’ intelligibility and comprehensibility ratings of L2 English recordings of L1 Korean speakers’ speech. Specifically, it considered which segmentals and features resulting from Korean phonotactics cause a breakdown in Korean speakers’ L2 English intelligibility and comprehensibility for Mandarin L1-background L2 English speakers. As Korean speakers use English as a lingua franca primarily with their L1 Mandarin speaking neighbours, recordings of scripted and unscripted speech of Korean university students were sent to L1 Mandarin raters in mainland China and Taiwan, who rated utterances for intelligibility and comprehensibility. Findings showed that the most frequently mistranscribed features were epenthesis (inclusion of extra vowels to separate clustered consonants), substitution of nasals for plosives between vowels and sonorant consonants, and the consonant-vowel combination [wʊ]. Findings also suggest that less problematic features, such as [əʊ], /r/, and the distinction between [ʊ] and [u], are at times aided by similar realisations by L2 listeners.

영어와 한국어 종결성 인식 비교: 명사구의 한정성을 중심으로

This study aimed to investigate how Korean English learners and native English speakers perceive telicity in English and Korean. Two hundred and forty-one Korean English learners and thirty seven native English speakers participated in this study. Two types of telicity experiment (a reading test and a writing test) were conducted on native English speakers and three groups of Korean English learners who were classified by their English proficiency. The results of the study showed how Korean English learners and native speakers distinguish the difference depending on the noun phrase types, and showed that the way most Korean English speakers interpret the English verb phrases is influenced by the Korean language. In addition, Korean learners in the beginner group have more difficulty acquiring English verb phrases by the definiteness of noun phrases. The findings of the study are discussed along with relevant studies.

한국어-영어 이중언어 화자의 사용 언어, 문맥, 언어 능숙도에 따른 기본 주파수 변화*

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the mean fundamental frequency (F0) changes depending on language, task, or language proficiency for Korean-English bilinguals. A total of forty-eight Korean-English speakers (28 balanced bilinguals and 20 Korean dominant bilinguals) participated in the study. Participants were asked to read aloud two types of tasks in English and Korean. For statistical analyses, the language × task two-way repeated ANOVAs were conducted within the balanced bilingual group first, and then group × language two-way mixed ANOVAs. The results showed that the females in both bilingual groups changed their mean F0 depending on the language they used and the tasks (<italic>p</italic>&lt;.05), whereas no significant results were found in the males in either group under any conditions. The mean fundamental frequency in the Korean reading task was significantly higher than that in the English reading task for females in both balanced and Korean dominant bilingual groups. Thus, changes in mean F0 depending on language and context may reflect gender-specific characteristics, and females seem to be more sensitive to the socio-cultural standards that are imposed on them.

Testing SLM and PAM on the Acquisition of L2 Onset Clusters

This study examined the effects of the first language (L1) transfer and the second language (L2) proficiency on the perception and production of onset clusters by Korean speakers of English. Two cluster types (C+glide vs. C+liquid), the role of L2 proficiency (high, 19; middle, 18; low, 18), and two speech tasks (perception and production) were tested. To investigate the impact of the two above mentioned factors, two theoretical approaches were used: the Speech Learning Model (SLM) and the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM). The hypotheses derived from the two models were explored. As suggested by the results of the analysis, the PAM was found to have the strongest explanatory power in the perception task, while the SLM was in the production of onset clusters. Unequivocally, the biggest challenge for Korean learners in the perception task, regardless of their L2 proficiency are the C+liquid clusters. Whereas in the production task, the accuracy of C+liquid grew with an increase of L2 proficiency level; however, no such pattern was observed for the C+glide cluster.

Situational Factors Triggering Code-Switching in Oral and Written Language: A Case Study of Korean Speakers of English

Situational Factors Triggering Code-Switching in Oral and Written Language: A Case Study of Korean Speakers of English

Language Learner Investment and Identity Negotiation in the Korean EFL Context

Most research on language and identity has been conducted in contexts in which English is an official language. As a result, the Western-derived framework guiding identity research may not be representative for L2 learners/speakers in localized settings. To address this potential disparity, this qualitative study examines L2 identity construction and negotiation in the local context of Korea and investigates how English shapes self and social identity through actual use of English in day-to-day interaction. Using purposive homogenous sampling techniques, open-ended questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 adult bilingual Korean-English speakers who have lived abroad for over 4 years, a criterion which assumes the formation of self and social identity aside from their native L1. Analysis of the interview and questionnaire data reveals the challenges and opportunities to reconstruct and renegotiate L1/L2 identities locally. Findings show (1) challenges in using English in the local context, (2) strategic use or non-use of language to blend in or distinguish themselves from the local population, and (3) “natural” L2 expression and identity occurring mainly in private or professional circumstances. Findings suggest that L2 identity negotiation in local contexts is a complex process raising the question of L2 identity options and (dis)empowerment. Pedagogical implications relating to L2 language instruction follow.

Scope Interpretation of Sentences with Double Quantifiers by Native and Korean Speakers of English

Scope Interpretation of Sentences with Double Quantifiers by Native and Korean Speakers of English

A, an and the environments in Spoken Korean English

This paper contains an analysis of small corpora of spoken Korean English – a burgeoning New English that is rarely discussed in published articles. With a theoretical framework based on Hoey's (2005) Theory of Lexical Priming, the lexical environment surrounding the items a, an and the in two Korean corpora (one comprising Korean English speakers in Liverpool, England, and the other, speakers in Seoul, Korea) are compared with two British comparator corpora. The results show a balance of differences and similarities between the Korean corpora, and this may suggest that, while Korean English is distinct from British varieties, recent priming effects and the L1 are interacting in complex ways that give each corpus a unique identity.

The role of speaker identification in Korean university students' attitudes towards five varieties of English

This study investigates how the attitudes of 60 Korean university students towards five varieties of English are affected by the identification of the speaker's nationality and ethnicity. The study employed both a verbal guise technique and questions eliciting overt beliefs and preferences related to learning English. While the majority of the students stated that American English was the variety that should be taught and learned in Korea, this preference did not necessarily extend to ratings of an American speaker unless they were informed of her nationality. Listeners who were informed about the nationality/ethnicity of the speakers tended to rate European-American and Korean English speakers higher and British and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) speakers lower than did listeners who were not informed. Listeners who were asked to guess speakers' ethnicities often identified the AAVE speaker as being from a non-Inner Circle country, suggesting that stigmatised native accents are not very salient to this group; Australian English was also not salient. The finding that speaker identification plays a role in the evaluation of a variety has implications for the interpretation of verbal guise studies and suggests the need for more research into how listeners evaluate speakers in everyday situations when they typically know more about the speaker.

CALL Visual Feedback for Pronunciation of Vowels

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Phonological memory in bilinguals and monolinguals

In the present study, we examined the effects of lexical-semantic knowledge and of difficulty level on phonological memory performance by monolingual adult English speakers and bilingual adult Korean-English speakers. The monolingual English speakers were more proficient in English than the bilingual speakers. All participants were tested on a range of phonological memory tasks in English. We manipulated the degree to which the phonological memory tasks involved lexical-semantic knowledge of English (word-span task, digit-span task, and nonword repetition task), as well as the difficulty level of the tasks. Results revealed that on the word-span task (highest level of lexical-semantic knowledge), monolinguals outperformed bilinguals at the easier levels of the task but bilinguals outperformed monolinguals at the more difficult levels of the task. For the digit-span and nonword repetition tasks, monolinguals outperformed bilinguals at the easier levels of the tasks, but the differences between the two groups vanished with the increase in the difficulty levels. Together, these results suggest that proficiency-based differences between monolingual and bilingual phonological memory performance depend on the degree to which the tasks rely on lexical-semantic knowledge and the difficulty level of the task.