Korean Monolinguals Research Articles

Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual production of clear speech

Clear speech, a listener-oriented speaking style adopted to mitigate communicative barriers, is often characterized by language-specific acoustic enhancement of phonological contrasts (Smiljanic and Bradlow, 2008; Cho et al., 2011). Previous work (e.g., Smiljanic and Bradlow, 2009) suggested a possibility that bilingual speakers’ L1 and L2 clear speech strategies could affect each other. The current study examined English and Korean clear speech produced by late Korean-English bilinguals (n = 30) living in the United States. Their clear speech produced in each of the two languages was compared with clear speech produced by either English (n = 20) or Korean (n = 20) monolinguals. Of specific interest was how English and Korean stop contrasts were realized and enhanced in clear speech with respect to the use of VOT and onset F0. The bilinguals enhanced the English voicing contrast in the same manner as English monolinguals, via asymmetrical lengthening of voiceless stops’ VOT. In Korean clear speech, bilinguals also lengthened VOT of the aspirated and lenis (long-lag) stops, whereas Korean monolinguals did not exhibit the same pattern. These findings suggest that Korean clear speech strategies produced by the bilinguals could be affected by their L2, due to their extensive exposure to the language.

Influence of cognitive abilities on literacy skills in a Korean-Japanese bilingual child with developmental dyslexia.

Some individuals with developmental dyslexia show dissociation in reading skills between languages. The occurrence of dissociation depends on differences in the orthographic characteristics and cognitive demands of languages. This article reports on a Korean-Japanese bilingual and biliterate boy, SJ, with developmental dyslexia (aged 11 years), who displayed dissociation between Korean and Japanese in reading and writing accuracy. This study aimed to discuss possible accounts for the profile of his literacy skills from orthographic and cognitive perspectives. To accomplish this aim, we measured SJ's literacy skills, receptive vocabulary, and cognitive abilities (i.e., phonological skills, naming speed, and visual skills) in both Korean and Japanese. Then, we compared his skills to those of monolingual and bilingual children. In terms of accuracy, his reading skills in Korean did not differ significantly from those of bilinguals, although they were lower than Korean monolinguals. His spelling skills were within the average range for Korean monolinguals and bilinguals. In contrast, his reading and writing accuracy levels in Japanese were low compared to both Japanese monolinguals and bilinguals. Moreover, his reading and writing deficits were more remarkable in Japanese kanji. However, his cognitive profile was similar between languages. Specifically, he showed deficits in phonological skills and naming speed in both languages, as well as deficits in visual skills. These results were explained by the facts that visual skills are one of the significant predictors of reading and writing accuracy in Japanese but not in Korean, and that visual skills are a key in learning kanji. Thus, our case, SJ, supports the cognitive account, namely, the idea that different cognitive demands on the development of literacy skills can cause dissociation in literacy skills (especially in terms of accuracy) in bilingual children.

The Influence of Children’s Temperament, Phonological Working Memory, Mother Related Factors, and Language Environment on Vocabulary Development in Korean Monolingual and English-Korean Bilingual Children

Objectives: This study investigated the influence of internal and external factors on vocabulary development in Korean monolingual and English-Korean bilingual children, and examined predictors of their vocabulary skills.Methods: A total of 45 children aged from 3-6 years participated in this study, including Korean monolingual children (N= 30), and English-Korean bilingual children (N= 15). Children completed standardized vocabulary tests to measure vocabulary skills. To examine internal and external factors, a nonword repetition (NWR) task was administered, and participants’ mothers completed the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire-Very Short Form, the Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition Short Form (PSI-4-SF), the Parental Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, and the Language Environment Questionnaire.Results: For monolingual children, internal factors were significantly correlated with Korean vocabulary skills, and effortful control was the only predictor. For bilingual children, there was a significant correlation between internal factors and Korean vocabulary skills. Effortful control and Korean NWR were predictors of Korean receptive vocabulary skills, and Korean NWR predicted Korean expressive vocabulary skills. Their English vocabulary skills were significantly associated with internal and external factors. Quantity of mother’s English input and English NWR were predictors of English receptive vocabulary skills, and quantity of mother’s English input, English NWR and quality of Korean input were predictors of English expressive vocabulary skills.Conclusion: The results suggest that when examining vocabulary skills, we should consider the influence of effortful control for monolingual children and the influence of mothers’ language use at home for bilingual children. Furthermore, NWR should be applied as a clinical tool when assessing bilingual children.

Exploring motion event construal: How much attention do speakers of different languages and cultures pay to context?

Cross-cultural psychology research has consistently shown that East Asians tend to display a holistic attentional bias and attend to the background context while Westerners show a tendency to attend to focal objects in relative isolation from their context. The present study sought to expand ongoing research on motion event construal by investigating how speakers of different languages and cultures (i.e., functionally monolingual speakers of English and Korean, and Korean-speaking learners of English) construe and describe motion events in relation to focal versus peripheral information. Our results demonstrated that American English monolinguals and Korean monolinguals differed in the amount of attention they give to focal versus peripheral information in their descriptions of motion events embedded in a story. Furthermore, Korean-speaking learners of English adhered to the Korean thinking style when describing events in English. Such findings appear to show that the scope of conceptual transfer extends beyond the encoding of manner, path, ongoingness, and endpoint reference to other types of motion event construal.

Usage of Onomatopoeic and Mimetic Words in Vietnamese-Korean Bilingual Compared to Korean Monolingual Families

ë°°ê²½ 및 ëª©ì  본 연구에서는 ë² íŠ¸ë‚¨ì–´-한국어 이중언어 및 한국어 단일언어를 사용하는 어머니와 ìžë €ì˜ 의성의태어 사용 양상의 차이를 ì•Œì•„ë³´ê³ ìž 하였다. 방법 ë² íŠ¸ë‚¨ì–´-한국어를 사용하는 다문화 아동 13ëª , 어머니 8ëª , 한국어를 사용하는 한국인 아동 14ëª , 어머니 11ëª ì´ 참여하였다. 아동들은 만 3-6세로, 표준화 검사로 ì¸¡ì •í•œ ì–´íœ˜ëŠ¥ë ¥ì— 집단 간 차이는 없었다. 본 연구에서는 ê·¸ë¦¼ì„¤ëª ê³¼ì œ(사물, 소리동작)와 ì—°ìƒê³¼ì œê°€ 사용되었다. ê²°ê³¼ 다문화 ê°€ì •ì˜ 어머니는 한국어만을 사용하는 단일문화 ê°€ì •ì˜ 어머니에 비해 ê·¸ë¦¼ì„¤ëª ê³¼ì œ(사물, 소리동작)에서 ìœ ì˜í•˜ê²Œ 낮은 수행을 보였다. 그러나, 다문화 ê°€ì • 및 단일문화 ê°€ì • 아동의 사물을 ì„¤ëª í•˜ëŠ” ê·¸ë¦¼ê³¼ì œ 수행에는 ìœ ì˜í•œ 차이가 나타나지 않았으며, 소리동작을 ì„¤ëª í•˜ëŠ” ê·¸ë¦¼ê³¼ì œ 수행에서는 다문화 ê°€ì • 아동이 단일문화 ê°€ì •ì˜ 아동보다 낮은 수행을 보였다. ì—°ìƒê³¼ì œì—ì„œëŠ” 다문화 및 단일문화 ê°€ì •ì˜ 어머니 및 아동 모두 ì •í™•ë„ì™€ 반응속도에서 ìœ ì˜í•œ 차이를 보였다. ë ¼ì˜ 및 ê²°ë¡ ë‹¤ë¬¸í™” ê°€ì •ê³¼ 단일문화 ê°€ì • 아동은 표준화 어휘검사 결과에서 ìœ ì˜í•œ 차이가 나타나지 않았지만, 두 집단의 어머니와 아동 모두는 의성의태어 ëŠ¥ë ¥ì—ì„œ ìœ ì˜í•œ 차이를 보였다. 한국어에서의 의성의태어는 특히 초기 아동기 시기에 중요한 특징을 지니며, 다문화 ê°€ì • 아동의 언어발달을 촉진하는 데에 의성의태어가 높은 가치를 ì§€ë‹ˆê³ ìžˆì„ 것으로 보인다. Keywords: 의성어, 의태어, ë² íŠ¸ë‚¨ì–´-한국어사용 다문화 ê°€ì •, 한국어사용 단일문화 ê°€ì •, 엄마의 ì–¸ì–´ëŠ¥ë ¥

A Study of English Emotion Metaphor Aquisition of Korean Monolingual Speakers

A Study of English Emotion Metaphor Aquisition of Korean Monolingual Speakers

Semantic approximation related to verbal lexicon in Korean monolinguals: Focused on Break-type and Remove-type verbs.

This research aims to explore the semantic approximation related to verbal lexicon in Korean 48-month-old monolingual children (n= 40) as well as adults (= 17). Despite the fact that semantic approximation is a pivotal aspect of language development, related previous studies in 1st language acquisition are much more scarce than regarding 2nd language learning. Semantic approximation in child language stems from analogic and pragmatic strategies and helps young speakers communicate their thoughts by making up their immature lexicon. Moreover, to date, little attention has been paid to the aspects and factors motivating semantic approximations in Korean monolinguals and their strategies underlying their production. Interestingly, Korean speaking monolinguals tend to use semantic approximation much more than those of other languages, i.e. French, German, Chinese and English. For examining this aspect, in this study, the semantic approximation related to verbal lexicon was studied in 40 monolingual kids, compared with 17 matched control participants during an action naming task, APPROX. Our findings show that first, each group showed higher rate of use semantic approximation than other language speakers. Second, most of semantic approximations in Korean monolinguals have been based on `domain change` (between-domain) and more generic terms (hypernyms) are used. Third, semantic approximations are found to be related to lexical richness in Korean verbs` construction and influence the level of conceptual complexity in Korean monolinguals. (Hongik University)

A Study of English Adverb-Booster(hereafter booster) Usage and Preference of Korean Monolingual Speakers

A Study of English Adverb-Booster(hereafter booster) Usage and Preference of Korean Monolingual Speakers

Acoustic Properties of Korean Stops as L1 Produced by L2 Learners of the English Language

Objectives: The present study examines whether Korean children and adults who have learned English as a second language (L2) produce Korean stops differently from Korean monolingual (KM) children with respect to voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) and whether the age of L2 exposure is a critical factor in determining the L2-to-L1 influence. Methods: Eighteen Korean-English bilingual (KEB) children and adults and eighteen KM children produced nine monosyllables /phε, pε, p*ε, thε, tε, t*ε, khε, kε, k*ε/ twice in a row. A total of 1,890 tokens were acoustically analyzed with Praat to obtain VOT and F0 values and were subjected to statistical analysis for group comparison. Results: Two three-way ANOVAs and follow-up statistics revealed that the VOT values of aspirated and lenis stops were significantly longer in KEB children and adults than in KM children and that normalized F0 values of lenis stops were significantly higher in bilingual than in monolingual individuals. Nonetheless, no significant group difference was found between KEB children and adults. Conclusion: The acquisition of L2 English appears to disturb a tertiary contrast of Korean stops in terms of VOT and F0, in a way that bilingual individuals produced lenis stops more aspirated-like, with increased VOT and F0 values, and aspirated stops with increased VOT values. The L2-to-L1 influence may not be significantly different between early and late L2 learners, if their length of residence in a L2 speaking community is similar. Keywords: Voice onset time, Fundamental frequency, Korean stops, L2 influence, English learners

Heritage bilingual talkers do not exhibit an intelligibility penalty in either language

Some speakers have clearer voices than others. In the present study, we investigate whether early bilingualism has systematic repercussions for talker clarity, using a group of Korean-American heritage bilingual talkers, as well as American and Korean (near-)monolinguals. American monolinguals and the bilinguals produced English sentences, which were mixed with white noise at two signal-to-noise ratios and presented to native English listeners. Korean monolinguals and the same bilinguals produced Korean sentences, which were presented to native Korean listeners. In English, there was no monolingual/bilingual difference in talker clarity. In Korean, bilingual talkers were more clear than monolinguals. Post hoc investigation showed that Korean American bilinguals produced the Korean stimuli more slowly than monolinguals, explaining part of the bilingual advantage. Taken together, these results suggest that early bilingual exposure does not cause a talker clarity deficit, in either language.

L2 Influence on Korean-English Bilinguals’ L1 Syntactic Processing of Relative Clauses

This study examines L2 influence on L1 in processing Korean relative clause sentences from Korean-English in EFL context. Transfer patterns in processing ambiguous relative clauses were compared with those identified in Korean monolinguals. This study tests Linguistic Tuning, which posits that parsers’ initial analysis of an ambiguous construction is influenced by their previous encounters with ambiguities. This study aims to examine Linguistic Tuning to see whether bilinguals L2 parsing routines can be permeated into L1 comprehension. 17 Korean-English completed online self-paced reading task with ambiguous relative clauses in Korean. The results from reading time data revealed that showed a different processing pattern to Korean monolinguals. Given a prolonged L2 exposure in an L2 environment, bilinguals’ processing routines seem to be affected by L2 experiences, hence carrying L2 processing strategies to L1 processing. This study provides another piece of evidence for Dussias and Sagarra (2007) that permeability of L1 is a natural consequent of L2 exposure and L1 is likely to be influenced and to change.

Korean-French Bilingual Children’s and Korean Monolingual Children’s Verb Production during an Action Naming Task: Focusing on the Separation Verbs

Korean-French Bilingual Children’s and Korean Monolingual Children’s Verb Production during an Action Naming Task: Focusing on the Separation Verbs

Testing the Interface Vulnerability Hypothesis with Korean Heritage Speakers

This study investigates the validity of Sorace (2011)’s Interface Hypothesis by testing Korean heritage speakers over two different interface properties in binding phenomena - syntax-semantics interface and syntax-pragmatics interface. The study focuses on the interpretation of binding of various Korean anaphors. Thirty four Korean heritage speakers residing in US, together with 35 Korean monolinguals in Korea, were tested over Acceptability Judgment Task combined with Sentence Interpretation Task, composed of Korean sentences containing different local anaphors - caki-casin and pronoun-casin - represented in different binding conditions (i.e., local and Long-Distance (LD)). Overall results have showen that Korean heritage speakers performed like Korean native speakers with respect to the understanding of syntax-semantics interface properties (i.e., Verb Phrase (VP) ellipsis); however, they were different in their interpretations of syntax-pragmatics interface properties (i.e., logophoricity), which supports the Interface Hypothesis with heritage speakers. Detailed discussions will follow.

Cognitive and Affective Perspective-Taking Ability of Young Bilinguals in South Korea

The present study examined balanced bilingual children's cognitive and affective perspective-taking and compared them to that of monolingual children. A total of 133 children aged 4 to 5 years and consisting of 73 Korean-English bilinguals and 60 Korean monolinguals were tested with cognitive perspective-taking and affective perspective-taking tasks. Balanced bilinguals were screened through general language ability tests in both English and Korean. Participant backgrounds were collected through a parent questionnaire. Results showed significant differences in affective perspective-taking between bilingual and monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children outperformed monolingual children. Although there was no difference in cognitive perspective-taking between bilinguals and monolinguals, the result showed that children's cognitive perspective-taking ability develops with age. This study provides basic information about bilingual children's perspective-taking ability and their bilingual advantage.

Non-word repetition performance in Korean-English bilingual children

The goals of this research were (1) to compare bilingual and monolingual children on Korean non-word repetition performance, and (2) to examine the relations between non-word repetition and vocabulary skills in bilingual and monolingual children. Sixty children aged from 3–5 years participated in this study, including 30 Korean-English bilinguals and 30 Korean monolinguals. The Korean-English bilingual children were sequential bilinguals who spoke Korean at home and English at school. Children were tested on a non-word repetition task and their Korean and English vocabulary skills were measured by standardized tests. The results showed that bilingual children were significantly lower on standardized vocabulary scores (p < .01). However, there was no difference between bilinguals and monolinguals on non-word repetition performance. Correlation analyses showed a significant association between non-word repetition performance and vocabulary skills of the tested language in both groups, while the association between non-word repetition and age was significant in the monolingual group. These results demonstrated that the non-word repetition task measures general language learning ability and is a sensitive predictor of vocabulary skills in linguistically diverse children.

Adaptation of English word-final stops into Korean: Effects of English exposure

In Korean, word-final stops are never released. When borrowed into Korean, English stop-final words are sometimes, but not always, adapted by epenthesizing /ī/ after the stop. Epenthesis is most frequent for words with coronal stops, that is, words whose stops are arguably most often released [Kang, Phonology 20, 219-273 (2003)]. This study investigates Korean listeners' attention to this sub-phonemic cue in borrowing. Korean listeners are predicted to attend to release cues, but their attention should decrease with their L2 exposure to English. Korean monolinguals, late-bilinguals, and early-bilinguals were tested on English non-word stop-final stimuli with and without releases. Their task was to add a suffix to the novel form; of interest was whether epenthetic /ī/ was inserted during the task. Overall, released stops were twice as likely as unreleased to trigger epenthesis; however, monolinguals were nearly twice as likely as early bilinguals to insert /ī/ after a released stop. This result accords with the “phonological” adaptation of proficient bilinguals [LaCharité and Paradis, Ling. Inquiry 36, 223-258 (2005)]. More proficient bilinguals “know” that English stop release is not contrastive and ignore stop release when adapting English words.

Stop consonant productions of Korean–English bilingual children

The purpose of this study was to conduct an acoustic examination of the obstruent stops produced by Korean–English bilingual children in connection with the question of whether bilinguals establish distinct categories of speech sounds across languages. Stop productions were obtained from ninety children in two age ranges, five and ten years: thirty Korean–English bilinguals, thirty monolingual Koreans and thirty monolingual English speakers. Voice-Onset-Time (VOT) lag at word-initial stop and fundamental frequency (f0) in the following vowel (hereafter vowel-onset f0) were measured. The bilingual children showed different patterns of VOT in comparison to both English and Korean monolinguals, with longer VOT in their production of Korean stop consonants and shorter VOT for English. Moreover, the ten-year-old bilinguals distinguished all stop categories using both VOT and vowel-onset f0,whereas the five-year-olds tended to make stop distinctions based on VOT but not vowel-onset f0. The results of this study suggest that bilingual children at around five years of age do not yet have fully separate stop systems, and that the systems continue to evolve during the developmental period.

Early childhood bilingualism leads to advances in executive attention: Dissociating culture and language

This study investigated whether early especially efficient utilization of executive functioning in young bilinguals would transcend potential cultural benefits. To dissociate potential cultural effects from bilingualism, four-year-old U.S. Korean–English bilingual children were compared to three monolingual groups – English and Korean monolinguals in the U.S.A. and another Korean monolingual group, in Korea. Overall, bilinguals were most accurate and fastest among all groups. The bilingual advantage was stronger than that of culture in the speed of attention processing, inverse processing efficiency independent of possible speed-accuracy trade-offs, and the network of executive control for conflict resolution. A culture advantage favoring Korean monolinguals from Korea was found in accuracy but at the cost of longer response times.

Task Effects on the Perception of Phonological Contrasts by Korean Monolingual Adults

Three experiments were conducted to investigate effects of (AX vs. AXB) and the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) (500 ms vs. 1000 ms vs. 1500 ms) on perception of native phonemic and allophonic contrasts among native speakers of Korean. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that discrimination accuracy of allophonic contrast was higher in AX than in AXB paradigm; No difference in perceptual accuracy between two paradigms for phonemic contrast was found. The Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 investigated effects of ISI on discrimination of two contrast types under AXB (Experiment 2) and AX (Experiment 3) paradigms respectively. However, these experiments failed to show any ISI effects on discrimination of native sound categories regardless of task paradigm (AX or AXB), suggesting that 500 ms vs. 1500 ms dichotomy as short vs. long ISI should be investigated further, as an influence upon specific perception tests.

Binding Interpretations of Anaphors by Korean Heritage Speakers

This study investigates the potential incomplete acquisition of binding interpretations in Korean-English bilinguals by asking whether and how the majority language of these bilinguals (English) influences their family or heritage language (Korean), especially when exposure to and use of English starts very early. The experiment tested the long-distance and local interpretations of different Korean anaphors—caki, casin, and caki-casin—by 51 Korean-English bilinguals raised in Korean-speaking families residing in the United States (22 early bilinguals and 29 late bilinguals) together with a control group of 34 Korean monolinguals residing in Korea. Overall results indicated that the bilinguals maintain the distinction between local and long-distance anaphors, though not to the same degree as monolinguals. There was a tendency among early bilinguals to choose more local binding overall compared to the late bilinguals and Korean monolinguals. At the individual level, many early bilinguals failed to differentiate between caki-casin and casin in terms of binding distance, treating both as local anaphors, whereas monolinguals and late bilinguals tended to collapse caki and casin, treating both as long distance anaphors.