Perception of Prosodic Boundaries by Native English Speakers and Korean Learners of English in Public Speech

• Published in: Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics Vol. 24; pp. 1101 - 1120
• Main Author: Im, Suyeon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국영어학회 2024
• Subjects: 영어와문학; boundary; phrasal tone; Korean learners of English; English; L2 prosody; public speech; prosody; L1 transfer
• ISSN: 1598-1398; 2586-7474
• DOI: 10.15738/kjell.24..202410.1101

Korean and English have distinct prosodic systems. Due to these differences, Korean learners of English may have difficulty perceiving prosodic boundaries and tones. To this end, the present study investigates the perception of prosodic boundaries by Korean learners of English compared with native English speakers using public speech. As perception can be influenced by the speech style of the speaker, we first examined the production of prosodic boundaries and tones by a native English speaker in the stimulus materials and observed five boundary types (prosodic word, L-, H-, L-L%, and H-H%). Next, we examined the perception of prosodic boundaries in relation to prosodic strength (prosodic word, intermediate phrase, and intonational phrase) and boundary tones (high tone and low tone) by native English speakers and Korean learners of English. The two groups of listeners differed significantly in that Korean learners of English, compared with native English speakers, were more likely to perceive prosodic boundaries for the intonational phrase, especially one conveying a high tone (i.e., H-H%). These results suggest that Korean learners of English may (a) rely on a bottom-up process and (b) transfer L1 prosody to the perception of L2 prosody. This study calls for exposure to various speech styles during L2 prosody acquisition. KCI Citation Count: 0