A Comparative Experimental Study on English On-glides Produced by Korean Learners and Native Speakers: Focusing on [yi], [wu] and [w]

Abstract

In this paper, the pronunciation of English onglides in such diphthongs as [yi], [wu] and [wɔ] at word initial position produced by Korean and American English native speakers is studied. We closely examined the two glides [y] and [w] through spectrograms focusing on the acoustic parameters such as duration, formants and energy. The results of this analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) Non-proficient Korean speakers of English could not properly pronounce English onglides in such diphthongs as [yi], [wu] and [wɔ], especially in word initial position. (2) Korean speakers, who are relatively more proficient in English, pronounced [yi], [wu] and [wɔ] nearly as well as English native speakers. (3) On the other hand, native English speakers clearly distinguished words with or without onglides. Our results suggest that some of the English learners' pronunciation errors that are quite difficult to identity in terms of perceptual judgment can be appropriately analyzed and disclosed through instrumental investigation of acoustic properties.