Sound Perception and Production of Korean EFL Learners: English Consonants

초록

The study aimed at examining the perception and production of 8 consonant pairs and their relationship by pre-intermediate Korean EFL learners. In total, 52 college students from various majors participated in the study. The results of the study revealed that the Korean EFL learners’ perception indicated a 61.6% accuracy rate on average, showing with 19.3 points out of 32. While the /ʃ/-/tʃ/ pair showed the highest accuracy rate (80%), the /d/-/ð/ pair had the lowest (45%). As for the sound production, the results showed that the Korean EFL learners’ overall production was a 49.7% accuracy rate, with 15.9 points out of 32. Like the perception, the /ʃ/-/tʃ/ pair showed the highest accuracy rate (82.5%) in the production test even though /z/-/ð/ pair showed the lowest, a 35.0% accuracy rate. In terms of the relationship between the 2 tests, the findings indicated that the overall perception preceded the production, except for the /ʃ/-/tʃ/ pair and the/p/-/f/, /s/-/ɵ/ and /z/-/ð/ pairs, which showed statistical significance (p<.05). Finally, some teaching implications for instructing confusing English consonants were drawn.

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