Article Abstract

By: Lisa Halcom Fall 2012

Reference Meyers, K. & Schmidt, A. (1995). Traditional and phonological treatment for teaching English fricatives and affricates to Koreans. Journal Of Speech And Hearing Research, 38:4. Background and Purpose Learning to properly speak English can be difficult when coming from another country, especially when ones native language does not contain some of the sounds used in English. The topic of this article is the evaluation of the speech of native Korean speakers who are learning to speak English and the measurement of producing the English sounds, primarily focusing on fricatives and affricates. Method of Research Four (4) male, Korean speakers, ages 20 to 37, were selected out of eight (8) volunteers based on the lowest scores of an introductory test. Each of these four had only been in the United States of America for a short amount of time (ranging from 5 months to a year and a half). None of the participants had any exposure to English speakers with American accents when growing up in Korea. Each of the four participants went to a series of treatment sessions which were attended twice a week for thirty minutes each session. The candidates were randomly split into two groups. Two people went to articulation treatment, and the other

groups. Two people went to articulation treatment, and the other two went to phonological treatment. The sessions were attended, for approximately six to ten weeks, until the desired percentage of accuracy had been reached. Once ninety percent (90%) accuracy of the selected word list had been reached for three simultaneous sessions, the participant was finished with treatment. Findings of Research The results show that while both treatments, articulation and phonological, were effective, each candidate experienced different results. Each participant was given the same list of words, and, after repeating the words several times, certain sounds would change slightly. This provided the information needed to specify which sounds needed more work in order to be perfected. Even though the participants spoke the same dialect of their native language, the response to learning English was different for each person. Each one struggled in different places, but eventually met the desired percentage of accuracy (90%) which was required by the clinicians. Discussion and Conclusions of Research While each individual came into the experiment with a different baseline knowledge of the English language, all responded positively to the treatments, although it may have been more beneficial had some been given the other form of treatment instead. Additionally, receiving both forms of treatment may also have been more beneficial than only receiving one type.