A Study on the Realization of Focus for Chinese Learners of Korean
This study considers the aspects of the realization of focus in Korean with the subjects being advanced Chinese learners, and the comparative group being Korean native speakers. Wi...
A Study on the Realization of Focus for Chinese Learners of Korean
This study considers the aspects of the realization of focus in Korean with the subjects being advanced Chinese learners, and the comparative group being Korean native speakers. With the expectation that advanced Chinese learners, who are native speakers of a tonal language in which tone and accent are expressed by pitch, would have no difficulties understanding and expressing focus in Korean, three experiments were implemented. Aspects of the realization of focus in Korean, which change depending upon focus in declarative sentences, yes/no interrogative sentences, or wh-interrogative sentences, were observed.
The structure of this thesis is as follows: Chapter 1 explains the objective of the study and reviews the research on focus in Korean and the acquisition of second language focus pivoting on existing studies of the phonetic realization of focus.
In Chapter 2, the concept of focus and methods to realize focus are discussed. Furthermore, among the methods to realize focus, the phonetic features they have, pivoting on Korean and Chinese, were checked. Focused words sound relatively prominent compared to the surrounding words. Focus in Korean is realized in these ways: increasing the focused word’s pitchfundamental frequency or F0, and phoneme dephrasing in the focused word’s next phase; Chinese’s focus is similar.
‘Experiment 1’ in Chapter 3 is a ‘focus recognition test’ in which advanced Chinese learners were tested on whether he/she recognizes the change in rhythm which alters according to focus. For this, the focus was put in different positions in the three types of experiment sentences: declarative sentences, yes/no interrogative sentences, and wh- interrogative sentences. The sentences were made into voice files to allow subjects to select the most suitable answers after listening to 26 focus articulation voice files. The percentage of correct answers of the Chinese learners was very high, showing that advanced Chinese learners have no difficulties in listening to and recognizing focus articulation.
‘Experiment 2’ in Chapter 4 examines focus articulation in which the experimenter checked how Chinese learners articulate Korean focus sentences, and tried to determine whether Korean and Chinese have a difference in realizing focus phonetically. Korean and Chinese subjects articulated a dialogue containing 14 experiment sentences consisting of declarative sentences, yes/no interrogative sentences, and wh- interrogative sentences twice and the voices were recorded. The experiment compared the phonetic differences the two groups displayed, especially the phonetic features of focus in Koreanthe focused word’s increase of F0 and phoneme dephrasing after focused word. The results are as follows: Chinese who realize focus with pitch could not increase F0 as much as Koreans in most focus articulation, did not do phoneme dephrasing, and showed no regularity.
‘Experiment 3’ in Chapter 5, ‘focus articulation recognition examination’, checks if Koreans and Chinese have differences in focus articulation and if so, whether the difference influences practical communication. Native Korean speakers, who did not participate in Experiment 1 and 2, were asked whether he/she recognized the focus articulation in the recordings collected in Experiment 2. Furthermore, to check whether Chinese learner's focus articulation sentences were natural or not, an impression evaluation over naturalness was conducted simultaneously. The results are as follows: a very low percentage of native Korean speakers recognized the difference between declarative sentences and yes/no interrogative sentences articulated by Chinese learners. Wh-interrogative sentences were more easily recognizable compared to declarative sentences and yes/no interrogative sentences, but Chinese learners were observed to articulate without distinguishing interrogative and infinitive, proving Chinese learner's focus articulation can disturb communication.
Regarding the discussion above, this thesis has the following significance: the fact that Chinese learners have no problems in focus recognition but have problems in focus articulation was revealed in the phonetic experiment; the fact that this focus articulation can influence native Korean speakers’ aspects of recognition, increasing the possibility of disorder in practical communication, brings up problems in current pronunciation education. In addition, the fact that this result came from advanced Chinese learners implies that more systematic pronunciation education is needed in Korean education.
Furthermore, this thesis is meaningful in that the subjects were Korean learners who had not sufficiently studied in the second language acquisition field, and in that the learners’ focus articulation problems were found through learners’ articulation and aspects of native speakers’ recognition; the results of this study will supply fundamental materials for phonetic education, and I expect further research, such as educational planning, about these differences can be applied to actual classes.
，韩语毕业论文，韩语毕业论文 |
