A Phonetic Analysis of Korean EFL Learners' Production of English Reduced Vowel

Kwon, Harim. 2007. A F'honetic Analysis of Korean EFL, Learners' Production of English Reduced Vowel. SNU Working Papers i n English Linguistics and Language 6, 1-13. This study investigates the phonetic properties of English reduced vowel of Korean EFL learners. Five native speakers of Korean (experimental group) and two native speakers of English (control group) participated in the study. While pronouncing Enghsh reduced vowels, Korean EFL learners were different from English native speakers in two acoustic features. Firstly, the learners' duration of the reduced vowels was sigruficantly longer than that of the native speakem Secondly, the vowel quality (first and second formant frequencies) of reduced vowels was also different between the learners and the native speakers. The formant frequencies of English reduced vowels of Korean EFL leaners were more like those of native speakers' /?/ or / o / rather than the reduced vowels. However, the learners were nativelike in having a lower fundamental frequency for the reduced vowels. The results are discussed in terms of the &ect of the first language of the learners, especially the effect of phonological status of certain phonetic features.