Perception of Korean Stop Consonants in the Seoul Dialect by Thai Learners of Korean as a Foreign Language
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of Korean stop consonants in the Seoul dialect—aspirated, lenis, and fortis—at the bilabial, alveolar, and velar places of articulation, by Thai students learning Korean as a foreign language. The participants were 32 Thai undergraduates, aged between 18-23, all from southern provinces of Thailand. They were bidialectal speakers of Thai (Southern Thai and Bangkok Thai) and had no prior experience in learning Korean before entering university. The research instruments consisted of (1) a list of sample words for constructing auditory stimuli, (2) a discrimination task comprising 50 items, (3) an identification task (AXB) comprising 60 items, totaling 110 test items, and (4) answer sheets. All instruments underwent acoustic quality control of the stimuli and content validity evaluation by three experts: specialists in phonetics and native speakers of Seoul Korean. The statistical methods used in this study were percentage and the Chi-square test. The results showed that the participants were able to discriminate and identify the differences between aspirated and lenis stops, as well as between aspirated and fortis stops, with a high degree of accuracy. However, they exhibited statistically significant confusion (p < .05) in distinguishing between lenis and fortis stops, with a higher proportion of incorrect responses compared to other stop contrasts. These findings indicate that Thai learners of Korean face specific limitations in perceiving Korean stop consonants, particularly in distinguishing lenis from fortis.
Article Details
References
Best, C. T. (1995). A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange
(Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 171–204). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D. (2007). Nonnative and second-language speech perception:
Commonalities and complementarities. In O.-S. Bohn & M. J. Munro (Eds.), Language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege (pp. 13–34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.17.07bes
Cho, T., Whalen, D. H., & Docherty, G. (2019). Voice onset time and beyond: Exploring
laryngeal contrast in 19 languages. Journal of Phonetics, 72, 52–65.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2018.11.002
Choophan, W., & Atthaphonphiphat, W. (2015). The production and perception for
English final consonant sounds of Thai students. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, 1–14. https://www.academia.edu/66093061
Cutler, A. (2012). Native listening: Language experience and the recognition of spoken
words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Flege, J. E. (1995). Second-language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In
W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and
methodological issues in cross-language speech research (pp. 233–272).
Timonium, MD: York Press.
Jung, M.-J., & Kwon, S.-M. (2010). A study on the phonetic discrimination and acquisition
ability of Korean language learners. Phonetics and Speech Sciences, 2(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2010.2.1.001
Kanokpermpoon, M. (2007). Thai and English consonantal sounds: A problem or a
potential for EFL learning? ABAC Journal, 27(1), 57–66. https://www.academia.edu/10945012
Kim, M.-R., Beddor, P. S., & Horrocks, J. (2002). The contribution of consonantal and
vocalic information to the perception of Korean stops. Journal of Phonetics, 30(1), 77–100. https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.2001.0152
Kim, M.-R. (2004). Correlation between VOT and F0 in the perception of Korean stops. In
Proceedings of Interspeech 2004 (pp. 49–52). International Speech Communication Association. https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/archive_papers/interspeech_2004/i04_0049.pdf
Kong, E. J., Kang, S., & Seo, M. (2022). The acoustic cue-weighting and the L2 production-
perception link: A case of English-speaking adults’ learning of Korean stops. Phonetics and Speech Sciences, 14(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2022.14.3.001
Laird, K. (2022). Acquisition of plosive perception in Korean L2 learners. Journal of the
Linguistic Society of Korea, 30(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.24303/jlsk.2022.30.1.1
Lee, H.-B. (2012). The role of F0 in the perception of Korean stop contrasts. Lingua,
(11), 1287–1302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.06.004
Phosrithong, M.-S. (2017). A study on the perception of English initial consonant sounds
(Master’s thesis, Thammasat University). Thammasat University e-Thesis Archive. https://ethesisarchive.library.tu.ac.th/thesis/2017/TU_2017_59210_40225_8913_7051.pdf
Rungruang, A., & Glover, P. (2017). Consonant cluster acquisition by L2 Thai speakers.
English Language Teaching, 10(7), 50–59. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1144775.pdf
Schertz, J. (2019). Individual differences in cue weighting for the Korean stop laryngeal
contrast. Laboratory Phonology, 10(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.150
Seo, Y., Dmitrieva, O., & Cuza, A. (2022). Crosslinguistic influence in the discrimination of
Korean stop contrast by heritage speakers and second language learners. Languages, 7(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7010006
Thirakunkovit, S. (2021). Production and perception of geminate consonants in English
words by Thai learners of English: Implications for English teaching and learning.
English Language Teaching, 14(10), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v14n10p1
Wayland, R. (2000). Perceptual assimilation and categorical discrimination of Korean stop
consonants by native Thai speakers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 108(5, Suppl.), 2652. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4743894
