Acquisition of Korean Stop Sounds by L2 Learners and the Role of Proficiency : an ERP Study
Cho Jeonghwa Jeon Hyeon-Ae Nam Kichun Kim Youngjoo Lee Sun-Young
University of Michigan, Department of Linguistics, Ph.D. Student Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Professor Korea University, Department of Psychology, Professor Kyunghee University, Department of Korean Language, Professor Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Department of English, Professor
Korean Language Education Research Vol. 55 No. 5 pp.5-29 (2020)
Abstract
Cho, Jeonghwa・Jeon, Hyeon-Ae・Nam, Kichun Kim, Youngjoo・Lee, Sun-Young This study examined the acquisition of Korean stop sounds /t/(ᄃ), /t’/(ᄄ) and /th/(ᄐ) by Chinese learners of Korean using Event-related potentials (ERP). Fifteen advanced learners and ten intermediate learners participated in both a behavioural and an ERP experiment. The intermediate learners were significantly less accurate than the advanced learners in discriminating /t’/ from /t/. The overall ERP result also showed less sensitivity of the intermediate learners compared to the advanced learners to the distinction between different stop sounds. The results indicate that the phonemic acquisition of Korean stop sounds by L2 learners develops as the learners’ proficiency increases.
Keywords
Korean stop soundsERPChinese learners of koreanMismatch negativity