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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 24, No. 0, pp.1318-1332
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2024
Received 11 Aug 2024 Revised 15 Nov 2024 Accepted 17 Dec 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.24..202412.1318

Korean ESL Learners’ Production of English Vowel Contrasts: Developmental Variations in L2 Sound Learning

Mi Sun Park ; Joo-Kyeong Lee
(First author) Visiting Professor, Division of General English University of Seoul 163 Seoulsiripdae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea, Tel: 02) 6490-5226 msp2136@uos.ac.kr
(Corresponding author) Professor, Department of English Language and Literature University of Seoul, Tel: 02) 6490-2519 jookyeong@uos.ac.kr


© 2024 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The present study elucidates the developmental progression of English vowel production in Korean learners’ L2 speech. The study focused on the first and second formant frequencies and duration values of seven American English monophthongs (excluding /u, ʊ, ə/) produced by Korean adults classified into three groups according to their proficiency in pronunciation (the degree of foreign accent): low, intermediate, and high. Then we compared them with those produced by native speakers. Results showed between-group differences in that high ESL learners produced English vowel contrasts by using spectral and/or temporal cues in a way resembling the native speakers’, while intermediate and low groups were relatively more limited in using these cues. The study also observed differences in the production of front and back vowels among ESL learners. Specifically, high learners primarily relied on temporal rather than spectral characteristics in producing back vowel contrasts, whereas intermediate and low learners showed no significant distinctions in temporal or spectral dimensions of back vowels. These results highlight the complex developmental processes involved in second language (L2) vowel learning.

Keywords:

Korean ESL learners, English vowel contrasts, production, sound learning

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the 2023 research fund of the University of Seoul for Joo-Kyeong Lee. We thank the reviewers for their insightful comments. All errors are, of course, ours.

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