Acoustic Properties of English Schwa [ə] Produced by Korean Learners
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This study examines the realization of English schwa by Korean learners of English. Korean learners often perceptually map the schwa [ə] to the Korean vowel [ʌ], but also map English [ʌ] to Korean [ʌ]. However, because a schwa never occurs in stressed syllables while English vowel [ʌ] always does, learners may treat them as if they are in complementary distribution, and their articulation is therefore not expected to be identical. Furthermore, for second language learners whose language does not have lexical stress, the indefinite article a may not be regarded as a reduced form of a full vowel. Instead, it may be perceived as a vowel that consistently occurs in an unstressed position. This study examines whether schwa [ə] is articulated identically to English [ʌ], whether it is influenced by Korean [ʌ] in Korean learners, and further considers how Korean learners produce schwa [ə] differently in articles and in lexical words. Thirty-five Korean learners of English participated in the experiment. The experiment showed that Korean learners produced the schwa [ə] similarly to English [ʌ] in terms of F1 and F2 values. However, there was a tendency for [ə] to be higher and further forward than English [ʌ]. Additionally, they distinguished the schwa from Korean [ʌ], which was produced further back with lower F2 values. However, there was no difference between [ə] in the article ‘a’ and [ə] in lexical words. Schwa [ə] had a duration similar to that of Korean [ʌ], whereas it was shorter than that of English [ʌ].
Abstract
This study examines the realization of English schwa by Korean learners of English. Korean learners often perceptually map the schwa [ə] to the Korean vowel [ʌ], but also map English [ʌ] to Korean [ʌ]. However, because a schwa never occurs in stressed syllables while English vowel [ʌ] always does, learners may treat them as if they are in complementary distribution, and their articulation is therefore not expected to be identical. Furthermore, for second language learners whose language does not have lexical stress, the indefinite article a may not be regarded as a reduced form of a full vowel. Instead, it may be perceived as a vowel that consistently occurs in an unstressed position. This study examines whether schwa [ə] is articulated identically to English [ʌ], whether it is influenced by Korean [ʌ] in Korean learners, and further considers how Korean learners produce schwa [ə] differently in articles and in lexical words. Thirty-five Korean learners of English participated in the experiment. The experiment showed that Korean learners produced the schwa [ə] similarly to English [ʌ] in terms of F1 and F2 values. However, there was a tendency for [ə] to be higher and further forward than English [ʌ]. Additionally, they distinguished the schwa from Korean [ʌ], which was produced further back with lower F2 values. However, there was no difference between [ə] in the article ‘a’ and [ə] in lexical words. Schwa [ə] had a duration similar to that of Korean [ʌ], whereas it was shorter than that of English [ʌ].