ERIC Number: EJ984850
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Oct
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Vowel Category Formation in Korean-English Bilingual Children
Lee, Sue Ann S.; Iverson, Gregory K.
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v55 n5 p1449-1462 Oct 2012
Purpose: A previous investigation (Lee & Iverson, 2012) found that English and Korean stop categories were fully distinguished by Korean-English bilingual children at 10 years of age but not at 5 years of age. The present study examined vowels produced by Korean-English bilingual children of these same ages to determine whether and when bilinguals establish distinct vowel categories across their 2 languages. Method: Both English and Korean vowels produced by 40 Korean-English bilingual children (5 and 10 years of age) were examined in terms of 1st formant frequency (F1) and 2nd formant frequency (F2), vowel duration, and F1 and F2 formant trajectories. Results: Formant frequencies of vowels produced by the bilingual children were similar to those of monolingual English and Korean children. The bilinguals distinguished vowel categories across languages using both the assimilation and dissimilation mechanisms as identified by Flege, Schirru, and MacKay (2003). Conclusions: Vowel categories developed earlier than stops in bilingual children because vowels were typically acquired earlier than consonants. The results of this study suggest that detailed phonetic categories do not form across the board and that bilingual children may invoke multidimensional representations of phonetic categories.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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