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KMID : 1022420140060030081
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Phonetics and Speech Sciences
2014 Volume.6 No. 3 p.81 ~ p.89
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A Link between Perceived and Produced Vowel Spaces of Korean Learners of English
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Yang Byung-Gon
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Abstract
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Korean English learners tend to have difficulty perceiving and producing English vowels. The purpose of this study is toexamine a link between perceived and produced vowel spaces of Korean learners of English. Sixteen Korean male and femaleparticipants perceived two sets of English synthetic vowels on a computer monitor and rated their naturalness. The sameparticipants produced English vowels in a carrier sentence with high and low pitch variation in a clear speaking mode. Theauthor compared the perceived and produced vowel spaces in terms of the pitch and gender variables. Results showed thatthe perceived vowel spaces were not significantly different in either variables. Korean learners perceived the vowels similarly. They did not differentiate the tense-lax vowel pairs nor the low vowels. Secondly, the produced vowel spaces of the maleand female groups showed a 25% difference which may have come from their physiological differences in the vocal tractlength. Thirdly, the comparison of the perceived and produced vowel spaces revealed that although the vowel space patternsof the Korean male and female learners appeared similar, which may lead to a relative link between perception andproduction, statistical differences existed in some vowels because of the acoustical properties of the synthetic vowels, whichmay lead to an independent link. The author concluded that any comparison between the perceived and produced vowel spaceof nonnative speakers should be made cautiously. Further studies would be desirable to examine how Koreans would perceivedifferent sets of synthetic vowels.
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KEYWORD
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English vowels, vowel space, Korean learners, gender, perception, production, link
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