This study observed the phonological and acoustic phonetical comparison of Korean and Indonesian monophthongs in order to reveal the which monophthongs that are difficult to deal with by Indonesian leaners. Furthermore, Taking that comparison result a...
This study observed the phonological and acoustic phonetical comparison of Korean and Indonesian monophthongs in order to reveal the which monophthongs that are difficult to deal with by Indonesian leaners. Furthermore, Taking that comparison result and considering that /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ are Korean monophthongs that are difficult to be learned, this study also intended to look into the acquisition of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ of Indonesian learners.
This study proposed three study questions which are focusing on the similarity and difference of Korean and Indonesian monophthongs, the acquisition of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ of Indonesian learners, and what kind of influences given by those similarities and differences to the aquisition of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/.
First study question was proposed to find how Korean and Indonesian monophthongs are organized, and how are different and similar those monophthongs. According to IPA(International Phonetic Alphabet), Korean and Indonesian have many similar monophthong phonetic symbols. However, there is one of Korean monophthong symbol that does not exist in Indonesian monophthong system. It is just /ㅓ/. In IPA /ㅓ/ is symbolized with /ʌ/ and not even one among Indonesian monophthong symbols corresponds to that symbol. Indonesian Learners recognize /ㅓ/ as /o/ of Indonesian monophthong whereas /o/ corresponds to Korean monophthong /ㅗ/ that is symbolized with /o/ in IPA. Furthermore, According to phonetic analysis of speech production /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ have different phonetic values each other but Indonesian learners pronounce them in the same monophthong /o/. They properly can not recognize the difference of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/. It is because there is only one /o/ in Indonesian monophthongs system which responds to /ㅗ/ in Korean monophthongs system, meanwhile Korean divides it into two, that is symbolized with /ʌ/ and /o/. Based on this, the study built the hypothesis that they commit an error in pronouncing /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ because of such confusion.
Second study question is about the examination of Indonesian learners' /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ acquisition. Regarding to precedent studies the reason why learners who learn Korean make an error in pronouncing /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ is because they were influenced by their mother language. However, since the learning period becomes longer the errors decreased, the pronunciation of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ got improved, and they could pronounce them like Korean speakers. The study on Indonesian learners' pronunciation of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ based on phonetic analysis of speech production has also found the same result as other precedent studies. Their errors decreased and their pronunciation got better. However, this could be because they learn Korean while they are living in Korea so that their mother language influence are decreasing. Based on this, this study intended to carry out the similar research to Indonesian learners who are studying Korean in Indonesia. These learners have no many opportunities to meet Koreans and their experiences about Korean are very few. According to this, this study set up the hypothesis that since they are studying Korean fully in Indonesia, their mother language may give many negative effects in learning /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ that could make them commit error and their pronunciation of them would not get improved.
Third study question was proposed to find out what kind of influence given by Korean and Indonesian monophthong similarities and differences to the acquisition of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ of Indonesian learners. According to IPA, except Korean monophthong /ㅓ/, all Korean and Indonesian monophthong symbols are same each other. If so, Indonesian learners must meet difficulty in learning /ㅓ/ and make error in it as it does not exist in Indonesian monophthong system. On the other side, they would be easier learning /ㅗ/ as it exists in Indonesian monophthong system.
The results of this study are as follows. Korean and Indonesian monophthongs have been compared employing the phonetic analysis of speech production and phonetic symbols analysis based on IPA. Analysing Korean and Indonesian monophthongs phonetic symbols, the symbols are as follows. Korean monophthongs phonetic symbols are [a] for /ㅏ/, [ʌ] for /ㅓ/, [o] for /ㅗ/, [u] for /ㅜ/, [ɨ] for /ㅡ/, [i] for /ㅣ/, [e] for /ㅔ/, [ε] for /ㅐ/, [ϕ] for /ㅟ/, and [y] for /ㅚ/, and Indonesian monophthongs symbols are [a] for /a/, [e], [ə]/[ɨ], and [ε] for /e/, [i] for /i/, [o] for /o/, and [u] for /u/. Taking those symbols, when monophthongs of both languages are corresponded to each other, they will be as follows, /ㅏ/ to /a/, /ㅗ/ to /o/, /ㅜ/ to /u/, /ㅡ/ to /ə/ or /ɨ/, /ㅣ/ to /i/, /ㅔ/ to /e/, and /ㅐ/ to /ε/. /ㅟ/와 /ㅚ/ have been eliminated as they belong to monophthongs in Korean whereas they don't belong to monophthongs in Indonesian, they belong to Consonant. Analysing and comparing the phonetic of speech production using PRAAT, it has been founded that the similarities between two languages' monophthongs are bigger than differences. This could be analyzed using PRAAT. PRAAT provides the way how to find the difference of each phonetics by showing the phonetics values through which is called formant. There are formant 1, formant 2, and formant 3. Formant 1 or F1 shows how height of tongue, is it in the top or in the bottom, F2 shows position of tongue, is it in the front of tongue, or in the back of tongue, and F3 shows lip-rounding, is it round shape or unround shape. Korean and Indonesian monophthongs that correspond to each other based on IPA symbol actually pronounced differently when they observed through format values. At the position F1 the whole monophthongs showed significant difference whereas at F2 and F3 position not overall but mostly showed insignificant difference. In the case of /ㅓ/, since Indonesian learners recognize /ㅓ/ also as /o/, the study intended to attempt to compare Korean monophthong /ㅓ/ with Indonesian monophthong /o/ although they do not correspond each other based on IPA. As a result, at F1 position they showed significant difference while at F2 and F3 did not.
The observation results of the acquisition of /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ of Indonesian learners are as follows. The observation was held firstly by classifying learners into three groups according to grade year in university. They are first year learners, second year learners, and third year learners. Secondly, by comparing their /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ with Korean speakers' /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ employing phonetic analysis of speech production. The observation found that first, second, and third year learners defined significant difference at the F1 position with Korean speakers. This result might come because between Korean /ㅓ/ and Indonesian /o/, Korean /ㅗ/ and Indonesian /o/ showed significant difference so that why when the learners pronounce /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ significantly different with Korean speakers. At the F2 and F3 position, except third year learners, all learners did not pronounce /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ as Korean speakers did. In addition, second and third year learners pronounced /ㅓ/ with rounded lips while it should be pronounced with unrounded lips. In the case of monophthong /ㅗ/, except first year learners, all learners spelled /ㅗ/ like Korean speakers. Furthermore, at F2 and F3 position, third year learners' /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ pronunciation got improved than first and second year learners, it means as precedent studies had found this study also found that longer learning period made errors decreased and mother language influence decreased either.
As mentioned above, Indonesian and Korean monophthongs have many similarities. Although at the F1 position all monophthongs showed significant difference one another, at the F2 and F3 position practically showed insignificant difference so that it could be said that both languages' monophthongs have more similarities than differences. It also appeared on comparison between /ㅓ/ and /o/, /ㅗ/ and /o/. They showed difference at F1 position and similarity at F2 and F3 position. The difference at F1 position might cause the Indonesian learners failed to pronounce /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ as Korean speakers, and the similarity at F2 and F3 position might cause the Indonesian learners succeed in pronouncing /ㅓ/ and /ㅗ/ as Korean speakers.
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