Effects of English-learning context on English and Korean vowel productions: Focusing on Korean female learners of English

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of English-learning context on English and Korean vowels. Eleven ESL learners in the U.S. and twenty EFL learners in Korea produced nine English vowels(/i/, /ɪ/, /ε/, /æ/, /α/, /ɔ/, /u/, /Λ/, /ɝ/) and eight Korean vowels(/i/, /e/, /ε/, /Щ/, /Λ/, /α/, /o/, /u/) embedded in words and F1 and F2 formant frequencies were measured. The ESL and EFL learners’ F1 and F2 of the English vowels were compared with female English speakers’ F1 and F2(Hillendbrand et al., 1995). Furthermore, the ESL learners’ F1 and F2 of Korean vowels were compared with the EFL learners’ F1 and F2. The results for the English vowels showed that the difference between Korean learners and native English speakers was more evident in F2 than in F1. The results for the Korean vowels demonstrated that the ESL learners were significantly different from the EFL learners for several vowels: F1 for /i/, /Щ/, /u/, and F2 for /Щ/ and /α/, thus showing variations depending on vowel properties.