This study was to design to illustrate perceptual characteristics of CVC monosyllabic minimal pairs between Native Korean and Mandarin Chinese speakers. Twenty Chinese students currently enrolled in Universities of Korea participated in this study. Av...
This study was to design to illustrate perceptual characteristics of CVC monosyllabic minimal pairs between Native Korean and Mandarin Chinese speakers. Twenty Chinese students currently enrolled in Universities of Korea participated in this study. Average length of learning Korean was 27 months. They were able to speak Standard Chinese, and mostly came from north-east region in China.
In experiment 1, dichotic listening (DL) test was performed by presenting a minimal pair, one in each ear simultaneously at MCL and SL 10 levels. Psychometric functions for meaningful CVC words including minimal pairs used in Exp. 1 were estimated in 5 dB increments from -5 dB to 40 dB HL in Exp. 2.The purpose of this study was 1)to examine words close to 100% correct and words that are dominant in minimal pairs, 2)to evaluate the relationship between performances in DL and the corresponding characteristics in psychometric function curve, 3)to perform perceptual error analysis at different levels in each group, and 4)to present the Coefficient of Interaction (COI) Index of a minimal pair for each group.
Results of the study were summarized as follows:
1. Dichotic Listening (DL) test
First, there was no significant difference in performance between groups at MCL. However, Chinese group performed significantly better at SL 10. It was concluded that selective attention by Chinese group affected the performance at lower intensity level, and the poor performance by Korean group at SL 10 was due to the reduction of aspiration and tensity of words as intensity decreased.
Second, intelligibility of aspiration was significantly better than lenis at the word-initial position. It was claimed that the difference of VOT might have contributed to better understanding of aspirated phonemes.
Third, intelligibility for bilabial plosives preceded by vowel ／i:／ was significantly better than fricatives at MCL for both groups.
Fourth, there was a tendency that minimal pairs by vowel quality showed intelligibility close to 100% in both groups. This confirmed the result of the previous study that dischmination of vowel was easier than that of consonants in DL.
Fifth, Perceptual structure of Korean lenis, fortis, aspiration (/달/, /딸/, /탈/) appeared as 달>탈, 딸>탈 for Korean group and at Chinese MCL, and as 달<딸>탈 at Chinese SL 10.
Sixth, Chinese speakers presented the possibility of forming a new perceptual category for foreign phoneme sounds as described in Speech Learning Model by Flege.
Seventh, Particular words that showed significantly better performance in Chinese group could be explained by the influence of mother language, similarity in pronunciation, COI and/or selective attention.
2. Psychometric function and its relations to performance in DL
First, results showed that dB intensity required to obtain 20%, 50%, 80% of intelligibility were significantly lower, and slopes of 20-80% were steeper for Korean group than Chinese group. We concluded that word audibility with regard to intensity was better for Korean speakers.
Second, there seemed to be no correlation between slopes in psychometric function curves and word performances in DL. However, Performance by Chinese group in DL seemed to be related to word audibility with regard to intensity.
3. Perceptual error analysis
First, error type and its number were more various in Korean group than in Chinese group, especially at SL 10. It was claimed that Korean speakers easily confused target words with other similar words because of the expanded range of information about Korean words and individual neural network formation for words.
Second, lenis in word-intial position tended to be perceived as aspirated sound when they were introduced simultaneously as a minimal pair in DL.
Third, the relations of the target word and its error could be partially explained by their characteristics in frequency. They served as the clear examples of non-linear function of auditory cognition and the corresponding neural network formation as noted in COI.
4. COI in minimal pair
First, COI in a minimal pair tended to be affected by the phoneme position where they differs by one feature. When minimal pairs by vowel difference were presented in DL, they showed improvement in intelligibility.
Second, it was claimed that the differences in COI for individual words between groups were contributed by the influence of mother language and non-linear functionof auditory cognition.
Third, the average of COI in each group indicated that negative interference was dominant in Korean group, while the overall positive improvement was noted in Chinese group in DL.
The results helped to analyze the perceptual characteristics of Korean monosyllabic minimal pairs in DL by native Korean and Mandarin Chinese speakers. The data included the relationship between performance in DL and its characteristics of psychometric function curve, error analysis at different intensity levels for both groups, and the corresponding coefficient of interaction. These data can also serve as useful tools in developing of training materials and programs for central auditory processing disorders. Further studies need to be conducted to complete the standardization of COI Index for the full list.
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