A comparative acoustic analysis of Korean vowels by native and non-native speakers

The primary purpose of this study is to examine L1 transfer in L2 vowel acquisition (Flege 1995,1996) by comparing L1 vowels with L2 Korean vowels produced by Korean native speakers and both Mandarin and English learners of Korean. It would predict which L2 Korean vowels are relatively difficulty or easy to produce for the non-native speakers based on acoustic similarities and dissimilarities between their L1 vowels and L2 Korean vowels. A total of 68 female speakers participated in a word-list reading task. For acoustic analysis, the formant frequencies (F1 and F2) and vowel duration were measured. Results demonstrated that there were cross-language differences in both vowel quality and duration. Both Mandarin and English learners of Korean perform well when producing Korean [a, i] vowels, but have difficulty producing Korean vowel contrasts [ʌ]-[o], [o]-[u], [ɨ]-[u]. In terms of vowel duration, Korean vowels were the shortest, English vowels were the longest, and Mandarin vowels were intermediate between the two. Overall, the L2 Korean vowel duration of both Mandarin and English speakers was too short, compared to their L1 vowel productions, to have a Korean native-like performance of vowels.