Comparison of the Effects of Pronunciation Learning from an English Native Speaker’s Correction and Self-correction: With Focus on English Voiced Stops and Word Duration

Abstract

This paper investigates two most common pronunciation learning methods. One is correction by a native speaker of English and the other is self-correction using the words recorded by a native speaker of English. The research is focused on English word-initial voiced stops and word durations. Two groups of Korean speakers participated in controlled experiments. One group self-corrected their pronunciations and the other was corrected by the native speaker of English. The results from the experiments showed that neither of the learning methods did not show statistically significant effects on the word-initial voiced stops, but both methods showed statistically significant effects on the word durations. The experiments also showed that phonological structure of Korean affects Koreans’ pronunciation of English words.