Hyekyung Sung, Ph.D.Faculty Development Division

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

How to Detect Difficult Korean Sounds for English-

Speaking Learners

This speech/presentation is authorized by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and the Department of Defense. Contents of this presentation are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, Department of the Army, or the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

Rationale

• Sound Recognition/Discrimination Skills A key to the success in foreign

language learning (listening)

• Students who established a sold foundation in sound discrimination tend to have higher levels of listening comprehension skills

Sound Discrimination

• Auditory discrimination ability to detect similarities and differences when listening to sounds – Some differences do not relate to meaning

• Little [liɾl] versus [litl]– Some differences are critical in meaning

• Fly [flai]• Fry [frai]

versus

Sound Discrimination Research

• Research has been mostly focused on:– Examining when the infant begins to discriminate

sounds during the first language acquisition– Identifying the problems of speech impaired-

children

• Not much research was done for foreign language learners in this area

Sound discrimination ability change between native and non-native speakers

Conboy et al (2005). Associations between native and nonnative speech sound discrimination and language development at the end of the first year. BUCLD Proceedings.

What is Wrong with Unsuccessful Adult Foreign Language Learners?

• The study compared successful and unsuccessful college foreign language learners on:– Intelligence– Foreign language aptitude– Math calculation– Native language listening and reading comprehension skills

• No significant differences on intelligence and reading• Significant differences on the Modern Language

Aptitude Test in the syntactic and phonological domains, and math.

• Ganschow, L. et al. (1991). Identifying Native Language Difficulties Among Foreign Language Learners in College: A “Foreign” Language Learning Disability? Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 24, No. 9, 530-541.

Does Practice Matter?

• Relatively little is known about how “practice” influences the performance of adult learners on basic auditory discrimination tasks.

• Based on the results of the systematic examination of learning on five basic auditory discrimination tasks, it is clear that after practicing, adult learners can learn to discriminate sounds that are initially indistinguishable.

• Wright, B & Fitzgerald, M (2003). Sound-Discrimination Learning and Auditory Displays. Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Auditory Display, 228-232.

Early Detection & Focused Practices

• It is important to detect which sounds are difficult to differentiate for the learner as early as possible:– In general for English-speakers– In the specific class or section– At the individual student level

• “An Instrument” is needed to detect the sounds that are difficult for the learners to discriminate.

After identifying them, each student or the class will receive the focused practices.

Let’s Experience!

• Instructions:– Listen to the recording– The same word is repeated twice after the

numbering, “일번, 이번, 삼번, …”– Circle the word that you think you heard– Do not go back and change your answer

Correct Answers

(1) a.딸 (2) a..b.자요

(3) a..b.팔

(4) a..b.먹이

(5) a.불 (6) a.고리

(7) a..b.상

(8) a.질그릇 (9) a.벼

(10) a..b.도끼

수고하셨습니다. 감사합니다.

Minimal Pairs

• In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element and have a distinct meaning.

• For example,– English words, “fit” and “feat” differ in only one

phoneme, /i/ and /i:/, and have different meetings

– pen vs. pan /e/ vs. /æ/

– lice vs. rice /l/ vs. /r/

Development of the Korean Sound Discrimination Instrument

• Originally, it was developed as a part of the DLI Korean School’s action research that started in July 2008:– to see the effectiveness of the two-week

long half-day SMART program at the Student Learning Center over one-week program

– by measuring the sound discrimination ability of the students between the two different groups

• Collective effort of Dept B in Asian School III.– Consolidated the teachers’ inputs on Korean

minimal pairs.– Identified 100 Korean minimal pairs that students

may have difficulty in differentiating.– 5 teachers (3 female and 2 male voices) recorded

20 pairs each.• It was for the variety, but not necessary.

Many thanks to all the teachers who participated in the creation of this instrument.

Development of the Korean Sound Discrimination Instrument (continued)

Implementation of the Instrument

• Student Informed Consent Form.

• Conduct the Sound Discrimination Test at the 9th -10th week of instruction out of the 64-week program (around Unit 3).– Can be repeated at the end of 1st semester.

• Check the correct and wrong answers.

• Enter the data in the Excel Sheet– View the whole class results– Identify problem pairs

How to Utilize the Data Results

• The raw data (each student’s answer sheet with errors marked) is returned to the team leader.

• Advising teachers receive their students’ answer sheet.

• Identify the problem pairs and work on them individually with students.

• Team leaders and department chairs see the patterns of errors for each class and tailor the lesson accordingly.

Suggestions

• The minimal pair sound discrimination instrument can vary depending on the needs (can be shorter).

• Test can be conducted as early as possible, right after the Introductory Unit.

• Student answer sheet can be web-based, then manual correction is not necessary.

• Student data can be categorized by types of minimal pairs.

Thank you very much! 감사합니다!

Questions and Answers