A comparative study on syllabic rates of Korean between English speakers and Korean speakers

Abstract

This paper compares syllabic rates (i.e., phonation rate for each syllable) of spoken Korean between two language speakers, English and Korean, in order to prove that different prosodic features found in a target language may interfere with the foreign language learning process, especially when Korean is learned by English speakers in particular. From comparative speech analysis conducted for this study on the syllabic rates between Korean and English, the syllabic rate of Korean when spoken by native English speakers is 1.39 times faster when compared to that of Korean speakers. Native speakers of English, who are familiar with their stress-timed rhythm, need to focus on vocalizing each syllable clearly in Korean's syllable-timed rhythm. They can learn to pronounce Korean properly by practicing speaking with relatively similar strength, time, and height in pitch for every syllable. In addition, they need to speak at a slower syllabic rate while not reducing or silencing any syllable as they usually do in their native language, English. © 2017 International Information Institute.