Korean Americans as Speakers of English: the Acquisition of General and Regional Features

This dissertation addresses Korean Americans as speakers of English and as a unified speech community, exploring the nature and extent of sociolinguistic stratification of the English used by Korean Americans in Philadelphia. The acquisition of three linguistic features is investigated: word-medial /t/ flapping, the use of discourse markers, and the regional feature of Philadelphia short a. Statistical analyses examine these features for the effects of linguistic factors and social factors such as age, sex, occupation, age of arrival in the US, length of stay in the US, and English education. Age of arrival shows a very strong effect on flapping: immigrants who arrived in the US as children and US-born immigrants both showed a very high degree of flapping, while Korean-born adult immigrants acquired flapping to a much lesser degree. Style is also analyzed to determine whether speakers show variation along the formality continuum. In addition to production, the perceptual component of English use by the speakers is examined through a perception test. The perception test, administered to native English speakers, elicits judgments of English nativeness and ethnic identity of the Korean Americans. The results of the perception test are correlated with the production results of the linguistic features. In general, Korean Americans show varying degrees of acquisition of the three features according to sociolinguistic factors. Although the speakers exhibit stylistic variation, they have not acquired the Philadelphia dialectal feature of short a. The perception test reveals that English nativeness is accurately judged but that ethnic identification is problematic for listeners. The correlation of perception and production is positive in that an increase in the presence of the native linguistic features in the speech being judged is correlated with increased perception of the degree of English nativeness. The three features examined are not taught through formal explicit instruction to either native or non-native English speakers, which implies that speakers must engage in face-to-face interaction with native speakers in order to acquire these native speech community norms

Preface

The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics (PWPL) is an occasional series published by the Penn Linguistics Club, the graduate student organization of the Linguistics Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The series has included volumes of previously unpublished work, or work in progress, by linguists with an ongoing affiliation with the Department, as well as volumes of papers from the NWAVE conference and the Penn Linguistics Colloquium. This volume presents a cross-­‐section of current work in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. On behalf of both the editors and the authors whose work appears in this volume, we wish to thank the reviewers of these papers for their important contribution

Preface

The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics (PWPL) is an occasional series published by the Penn Linguistics Club, the graduate student organization of the Linguistics Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The series has included volumes of previously unpublished work, or work in progress, by linguists with an ongoing affiliation with the Department, as well as volumes of papers from the NWAVE conference and the Penn Linguistics Colloquium. This volume presents a cross-­‐section of current work in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. On behalf of both the editors and the authors whose work appears in this volume, we wish to thank the reviewers of these papers for their important contribution

Preface

The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics (PWPL) is an occasional series published by the Penn Linguistics Club, the graduate student organization of the Linguistics Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The series has included volumes of previously unpublished work, or work in progress, by linguists with an ongoing affiliation with the Department, as well as volumes of papers from the NWAV conference and the Penn Linguistics Colloquium. This volume presents a cross-section of current work in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. On behalf of both the editors and the authors whose work appears in this volume, we wish to thank the reviewers of these papers for their important contribution

Nativeness and Flapping in Korean American Speakers of English

Studies in second language acquisition should take into account aspects of both production and perception. Perceptions of a speaker's English can serve as an indicator of how pervasive an English feature is produced by the speaker. This study examines the correlation of perceptions of "nativeness" of native and non-native English speakers of Korean ethnicity and their production of Word Medial /t/ Flapping, a distinctive feature of North American English While an exact description of nativeness is elusive, a perception test was designed to measure perceptions of nativeness and ethnicity of the speakers. The results of the test, which was administered to native English speakers, were then compared with the frequency rates of the production of Flapping. Results indicate that a positive relation exists in that an increase in perceptions of nativeness coincides with an increase in the use of Flapping

Sociolinguistic Variation In The Acquisition Of A Phonological Rule

This paper examines the extent to which 1st to 2nd generation Koreans in the U.S. have acquired the norms for the distinctive North American English flapping rule. First, quantitative analyses are conducted to test the significance of sociolinguistic variables such as immigrant generation, length of stay in the U.S., age of arrival to the U.S., and sex. Second, stylistic variation in careful and casual speech is examined.Third, categorical flapping in individual words are looked at. Fourth, the results of a subjective reaction test are presented. Native English speakers were asked to identify the race, ethnicity, and nativeness of the speakers. In particular, test results from the perceptions of nativeness are then correlated with the results from the flapping analysis. The rate of word medial /t/ flapping appears to show a concurrent increase with perceptions of speakers' nativeness

Preface

The University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics (PWPL) is an occasional series published by the Penn Linguistics Club, the graduate student organization of the Linguistics Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The series has included volumes of previously unpublished work, or work in progress, by linguists with an ongoing affiliation with the Department, as well as volumes of papers from the NWAV conference and the Penn Linguistics Colloquium. This volume presents a cross-section of current work in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. On behalf of both the editors and the authors whose work appears in this volume, we wish to thank the reviewers of these papers for their important contribution