<p>The current thesis investigated to
which extent Korean heritage speakers (N = 20) maintain their L1 phonology by
comparing their perceptual abilities with those of native speakers and
English-speaking second language learners of Korean (N = 20) in an AX
discrimination task. An AX discrimination task was implemented to measure
perceptual accuracy of participants in discriminating the Korean lenis–aspirated
stop contrast (aspirated stops: ‘ㅍ’ [p<sup>h</sup>], ‘ㅌ’
[t<sup>h</sup>], ‘ㅋ’ [k<sup>h</sup>]; lenis stops: ‘ㅂ’ [p], ‘ㄷ’
[t], ‘ㄱ’
[k]) which is believed to be the most challenging among the Korean laryngeal
categories to acquire not only for second language learners but also native
speakers. To investigate whether linguistic factors known to be correlated with
overall proficiency of heritage speakers can extend to Korean heritage speakers’
perceptual abilities, the current thesis examined the effects of language use
and exposure, age of acquisition, and articulation rate on the perceptual
accuracy in the AX discrimination task. Results of a mixed-effects logistic
regression model showed that heritage speakers were as accurate as native
speakers in discriminating the contrast while outperforming second language speakers.
Another finding of the current study is that verbal fluency of heritage
speakers measured by articulation rate was found to be a predictor for their
perceptual accuracy. The results align with previous work suggesting that heritage
speakers have the advantage of early language exposure and use that is sufficient
to develop and maintain native-like phonological perceptual abilities later in
life.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/17153480 |
| Date | 19 December 2021 |
| Creators | Yuhyeon Seo (11819516) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/CROSSLINGUISTIC_INFLUENCE_IN_THE_DISCRIMINATION_OF_KOREAN_STOP_CONTRAST_BY_HERITAGE_SPEAKERS_AND_SECOND_LANGUAGE_LEARNERS/17153480 |
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