A corpus-based analysis of Korean segments produced by Chinese learners

The increasing demand for learning Korean as a foreign language yields a strong need for a CAPT system that is able to provide automatic tutoring. However, there is limited research on Korean pronunciation produced by non-natives. As a preliminary research towards developing a CAPT system for Chinese learners of Korean, we survey key findings of previous studies. And then, based on corpus analysis, we provide improved descriptions of segmental variation patterns of Korean produced by Chinese learners. The most salient variation is substitutions of liquid sounds: 33.0% of flap sounds were realized as lateral, and 35.0% of lateral sounds were realized as 3 major variation patterns. By quantifying all the variation patterns with statistical data, we resolve disagreements between previous studies, indicate new findings, which are important resources for developing a CAPT system, and lay the groundwork for Korean language learning for various L1 backgrounds.

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