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
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.
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