The production of English /r/ and /l/ by native speakers of Japanese and Korean

Corrigan, Ryan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121369 Copy

Description

Title

The production of English /r/ and /l/ by native speakers of Japanese and Korean

Author(s)

Corrigan, Ryan

Issue Date

2023-07-18

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Franks, Suzanne
• Shih, Chilin

Department of Study

Linguistics

Discipline

Teaching of English Sec Lang

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• English
• Japanese
• Korean
• production
• pronunciation
• liquids
• /r/
• /l/

Abstract

Previous research has found that both native speakers of Japanese and Korean have difficulty with English /r/ and /l/ when learning English as a second language. However, much of this research focuses on perception, and studies which have analyzed production have generally included only acoustic measures or native English speaker judgements. Furthermore, few studies on production analyze positional effects. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to apply ultrasonic evidence in addition to acoustic evidence in order to determine the articulatory cause of the lack of differentiation between English /r/ and /l/ by native Japanese and Korean speakers. In addition, minimal pairs with /r/ and /l/ in word-initial, initial-cluster, intervocalic, and word-final conditions are included in the study for analysis of positional effects. Findings suggest that word-initial position is the least difficult for native Japanese speakers, but lack of differentiation is most widespread in initial-cluster position, though more severe in intervocalic and word-final positions. Little difficulty was observed for native Korean speakers with the exception of a single minimal pair: word-world. In regard to the articulatory cause of lack of differentiation, much variation was observed, though severely undifferentiated instances of /r/ and /l/ were often due to /l/ targets being pronounced similarly to /r/. These /l/ targets pronounced as /r/ often had a more fronted tongue tip position than /r/ targets, but more native-like /r/ acoustics. The cause of less severely undifferentiated pairs was difficult to determine, but may have been due to either a reduction in tongue tip or tongue root retraction for /r/ targets.

Graduation Semester

2023-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121369

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Ryan Corrigan

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