Korean L2 Research Articles

Early and Late Child Bilinguals’ Productions of L1 and L2 Vowels

The current study investigated the effect of age of acquisition and amount of language experience on children’s vowel production of the first-(L1) and second-language (L2). A total of twelve Korean learners of English varying in the amount of L2 experience (2 years vs. 5 years) participated. For L1 (Korean) and L2 (English) vowel comparisons, the spectral quality of nine English and seven Korean vowels were recorded and analyzed. The results demonstrated that the production of both English and Korean vowels varied by group. The child group with 5 years of English exposure showed more distinct separation between Korean and English vowel categories than the child group with 2 years of experience. The results suggest that late learners of L2 are likely to show a greater degree of interaction between L1 and L2 compared to early learners.

Approximate Cleft and Its Implication for Copula Overuse

In this squib, we observe one kind of cleft construction from Korean, which we dub ‘Approximate Cleft,’ in which copula is added to a normal sentence, and argue that the overused extra copula often found in L1 Korean learners of English can be attributed to L1 transfer of this copula. We claim that the copula in question is neither a topic marker nor an underdeveloped functional category. We also suggest a plausible derivation of a peculiar L2 English where copula appears to directly take the object of the main verb through ellipsis of the sequence containing the main verb and its complement.

Pitch Cues in L2 Speech

This study examines the implementation of pitch cues in L2 (second language) speech by conducting an acoustic analysis of the global and local pitch cues in L1 (first language) Mandarin speakers’ L2 Korean. Results of the study show: (1) while the phonological patterns of AP (accentual phrase) and IP (intonational phrase) tones in L2 speech largely resemble those in L1 speech, the L2 production is characterized by the significantly lowered and reduced overall pitch range. (2) The L2 speakers tend to exaggerate a local pitch cue in signaling questions possibly to compensate the overall compressed pitch range. (3) The prosodic patterns support the L2 speakers’ constrained speech planning strategy and developmental changes in L2 acquisition. The findings of this study help to understand the prosodic interface and acquisition when L1 and L2 are typologically different in prosody.

The Acquisition of Overt and Null Pronouns in L2 Korean by English Speakers

This paper investigates adult English-speaking learners’ knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) in L2 Korean. An embedded overt pronoun in pro-drop languages cannot take a quantified or wh-word matrix subject as an antecedent. This observable distribution between overt and null pronouns is being captured under the OPC, a principle of UG which is operative in Korean, a pro-drop grammar, but not in English, a non-pro-drop grammar. This study examines the relationship between overt and null pronominal alternations in L2 learners’ grammars in OPC contexts by testing a version of the Full Access account. The participants consist of 41 adult English learners of Korean at two different proficiency levels, whom have completed a co-reference comprehension task. The results of the study show that L2 speakers can achieve target-like syntactic representations of the OPC in both subject and object positions, in support of Full Access.

Comprehension and Production of Relative Clauses in L2 Korean: Rethinking of NPAH & Animacy Effect

Comprehension and Production of Relative Clauses in L2 Korean: Rethinking of NPAH & Animacy Effect

Learner-Generated Noticing Behavior By Novice Learners: Tracing the Effects of Learners’ L1 on Their Emerging L2

This study examines novice learners’ self-generated input noticing approaches and strategies. It is motivated by previous research on input enhancement which yielded insights that learners are naturally prone to notice certain aspects of L2 input on their own without any external means to channel their attention. Two L1 groups (Japanese and English) with no prior experience with the L2 (Korean) were exposed to written L2 input and probed for their noticing behavior under the ‘zero-knowledge’, and ‘some-knowledge’ conditions. The results indicate that under the zero-knowledge condition, both groups exhibited a form-oriented noticing behavior, prompted largely by perceptual properties of L2 input. Under the some-knowledge condition, however, the two groups exhibited divergent noticing patterns: the Japanese group adopted a more meaning-oriented approach, employing comprehension-based strategies, whereas the English group maintained their form-oriented approach to input processing, focusing on the formal properties of the L2. The two groups’ input noticing patterns are discussed in light of their L1 knowledge and its interaction with their emerging knowledge of the L2.

Detecting foreign accent in monosyllables: The role of L1 phonotactics

The present study investigated whether native listeners can detect a foreign accent in short, slightly accented utterances and also whether such information is related to the non-native talkers' native language (L1) phonotactics in terms of segments and syllable structures. To answer these questions, we examined eight native listeners' sensitivity (d′ values) to a foreign accent in a two-alternative forced choice task. Four L1 Korean learners of L2 English with high L2 proficiency along with two native speakers of English produced the test materials consisting of monosyllabic English utterances. The monosyllabic corpus included stimuli having both permissible (CV and CVC) and impermissible syllable structures (CCV and CCVC) in the non-native talkers' L1. The singleton onsets consisted of various segments in terms of Korean phonotactics and the cluster onsets included /l/ or /ɹ/. The results indicated that all the listeners detected a foreign accent from hearing the monosyllabic stimuli. Furthermore, the listeners detected a foreign accent more often from the stimuli with “new” L2 segments than those with “similar” L2 segments, regardless of syllable structure types. The present study demonstrates the L1 segmental phonotactics effects in foreign accent detection. The present study also supports and further demonstrates Flege (1984)'s finding that listeners are sensitive to foreign accent and that they do not need much information (e.g., sentences) to detect a foreign accent, even in proficient L2 learners' productions.

Plural-marking in L2 Korean: A feature-based approach

This study examined the second language (L2) acquisition of the Korean plural marker -tul by native speakers of English. Seventy-seven learners at four Korean proficiency levels along with 31 native Korean-speaking controls completed five tasks designed to probe for knowledge of particular features and restrictions associated with so-called intrinsic and extrinsic plural-marking in Korean. The results suggest that knowledge of both types of plural developed with increasing proficiency. However, the features associated with the intrinsic plural, which is more similar to the English plural in terms of grammatical function, were more easily acquired than those of the extrinsic (distributive) plural, which requires recruiting the features of a completely distinct morpholexical item from the first language (L1). We also found some developmental evidence for a feature hierarchy in quantified Korean noun phrases, in which the most deeply-embedded featural co-occurrence restriction on intrinsic plural-marking was the latest acquired.

L2 Unaccusative Relative Clauses

This paper argues against an assumption in relative clause (RC) acquisition (1) that direct object (DO) RC is more difficult than subject (SUB) RC in L2 as well as L1 (Hsu, Hermon, & Zukowski, 2009; Kwon, Peter, Lee, Kluender, & Polinsky, 2010) and (2) that the distance between head NP and gap in RC determines processing difficulty born in RCs (the Structural Distance Hypothesis; the SDH) (O’Grady, Lee, & Choo, 2003). According to the SDH, the structural distance is deeper in DO RC than in SUB RC. This paper raises a concern that unaccusative (UNA) RC can pose a problem to this assumption because UNA RC is a SUB RC but its structural distance is the same with DO RC. A cross-sectional oral-translation elicitation task was employed to investigate this contradiction with sixty-seven adult L1 Korean learners of English. The findings reveal that (1) UNA RC is more difficult than SUB RC and DO RC and (2) that UNA RC and DO RC bear different processing difficulties despite the same structural distance. This paper proposes that the source of difficulty born in UNA RC lies with the probe T in search of its matching goal, having a different featural agreement route from SUB RC and DO RC.

Trends in L2 Korean Writing Research

Trends in L2 Korean Writing Research

English L2 Spelling Errors Phonologically Absent in L1 but Present in L2

This study examined English L2 spellings among Korean L1 learners of English. Two groups of 3rdgraders, Korean L1 English learners (N=36) and native English speakers (N=30), performed a pseudoword spelling task ,in which they listened to an audio recording of pseudowords and dictated what they heard. The task material targeting phonological difference consists of two types of pseudowords: the consonants that exist in both English and in Korean (congruent type) and the consonants that do not exist in Korean but exist English (incongruent type).Data were tested with an experiment with a 2x2 factorial design with “group” and “word type” as independent variables. The results support the prediction that Korean L1 learners of English would have difficulty in spelling pseudowords containing phonemes which do not exist in Korean but are present in English phonology. Pedagogical implications regarding English L2 spellings are addressed.

L1-L2 Transfer in VOT and f0 Production by Korean English Learners: L1 Sound Change and L2 Stop Production

Recent studies have shown that the stop system of Korean is undergoing a sound change in terms of the two acoustic parameters, voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (f0). Because of a VOT merger of a consonantal opposition and onset-f0 interaction, the relative importance of the two parameters has been changing in Korean where f0 is a primary cue and VOT is a secondary cue in distinguishing lax from aspirated stops in speech production as well as perception. In English, however, VOT is a primary cue and f0 is a secondary cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops. This study examines how Korean English learners use the two acoustic parameters of L1 in producing L2 English stops and whether the sound change of acoustic parameters in L1 affects L2 speech production. The data were collected from six adult Korean English learners. Results show that Korean English learners use not only VOT but also f0 to contrast L2 voiced and voiceless stops. However, unlike VOT variations among speakers, the magnitude effect of onset consonants on f0 in L2 English was steady and robust, indicating that f0 also plays an important role in contrasting the [voice] contrast in L2 English. The results suggest that the important role of f0 in contrasting lax and aspirated stops in L1 Korean is transferred to the contrast of voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English. The results imply that, for Korean English learners, f0 rather than VOT will play an important perceptual cue in contrasting voiced and voiceless stops in L2 English.

Prosody-Based Word Recognition for L2 Speakers

<p>Compared to ample studies on word recognition by L1 speakers of English or French, there has been comparatively little focus on L2 listeners' sensitivity to stress for word identification in other target languages. Hence the current study explores whether Korean L2 (English) listeners can effectively differentiate or retrieve the original words on the basis of the initial syllable or foot containing primary or secondary stressed vowels. In effect, this study tests whether a bigger prosodic size than syllables can be the unit of word recognition.</p>

The effects of first-language sound change on second-language speech production

Recent studies have shown that the stop system of Korean is undergoing a sound change in which a consonantal opposition between lax and aspirated stops is merging in terms of voice onset time (VOT) whereas the contrast between the two stops is being maximized in terms of fundamental frequency (f0). This study investigates how the ongoing sound change of acoustic parameters in L1 Korean influences L2 English stop production. Results showed that, unlike the VOT merger in L1 Korean, it does not occur in L2 speech production. In contrast, similar to onset-f0 interaction in L1 Korean, there is a strong onset-f0 interaction in L2 English: voiced-low f0 and voiceless-high f0. Korean English learners use not only VOT but also f0 in contrasting an underlying [voice] distinction. The results suggest that f0 differences between lax and aspirated stops in L1 Korean are transferred to those between voiced and voiceless counterparts in L2 English. The findings are discussed with respect to cross-language phonetic effects and synchronic sound change.

Acquisition of Collocations in L2 Korean: Focusing on [verb + noun] Collocations

Acquisition of Collocations in L2 Korean: Focusing on [verb + noun] Collocations

Orthographic Differences and English L2 Spelling Errors

This study investigated English L2 spellings among Korean L1 learners of English on the basis of linguistic differences in their L1 and L2 orthography. Two groups of 3rd graders, Korean L1 English learners (N=36) and native English speakers (N=30), performed a pseudoword spelling task, in which they listened to an audio recording of a total of 10 pseudowords and dictated what they heard. The task material targeting orthographic difference consists of two types of pseudowords: more consistent vowels and less consistent vowels. Data were tested with an experiment with a 2 x 2 factorial design with “group” and “word type” as independent variables. Word type included two contrasting types: more consistent and less consistent. The results support the prediction that learners whose L1 is relatively transparent had difficulty in spelling L2 words whose grapheme-phoneme correspondence is less transparent. Further analysis on error types and pedagogical implications regarding English L2 spellings are addressed.

Discourse Marker mwe in the Interlanguage of Chinese Learners of Korean

This study explores the development and use of mwe, a multi-functional discourse marker, in the interlanguage of Chinese learners of L2 Korean. Oral...

Morphosyntactic Correlates for Simple Sentence Production in English and Korean

In this study, we experimentally demonstrate that the mechanisms underlying sentence production are contingent on the morphosyntax of a language. We reason that since the subject in English is denoted by reference to tense while it is normally by an overt case marker in Korean, English message formation and linguistic encoding center on verb features, whereas Korean speakers elect a subject first and then draw a predicate. We have conducted an experiment on the hypotheses that (a) English L1 speakers are disposed to make sentences based on verbal information; (b) In contrast, Korean L1 speakers would start utterance once they identify a subject; (c) Korean L1 patterns would be persistent in their L2 English processing. The results and some implications for language learning are discussed.

Development of NP Forms and Discourse Reference in L2 Korean

ABSTRACT This paper examines discourse reference forms (e.g., zero pronouns; the demonstratives i, ku, and ce) in speech of intermediate/advanced level learners of Korean. Referential forms collected from three heritage and three non-heritage students performing a film-retelling task were analyzed with respect to the cognitive, thematic and affective status of the referents in the discourse space. Results show a U-shaped development of zero pronouns and a protracted emergence of ku and i contrasts, arguably due to factors such as crosslinguistic influence and processing and intra-linguistic constraints.

Development of NP Forms and Discourse Reference in L2 Korean

ABSTRACT This paper examines discourse reference forms (e.g., zero pronouns; the demonstratives i, ku, and ce) in speech of intermediate/advanced level learners of Korean. Referential forms collected from three heritage and three non-heritage students performing a film-retelling task were analyzed with respect to the cognitive, thematic and affective status of the referents in the discourse space. Results show a U-shaped development of zero pronouns and a protracted emergence of ku and i contrasts, arguably due to factors such as crosslinguistic influence and processing and intra-linguistic constraints.