Korean–English Bilingual Children's Productions of Korean and English /l/

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine acoustic characteristics of Korean–English (KE) bilingual children's productions of Korean and English /l/ sounds. Specifically, individual variability in KE bilingual children's productions of Korean and English /l/ was examined in relation to each child's initial age and duration of exposure to their first and second languages. Method: A total of five KE bilingual children, ranging in age between 5 and 8 years, were included in this study. Each KE child produced word-initial (WI) and -final (WF) English /l/ and WF Korean /l/ embedded in monosyllabic words, using a picture naming task. English /l/ productions of monolingual American English (AE)–speaking children were also included. Productions of AE children were from an existing large data set that includes English WI and WF /l/ productions. The AE group was included as a control group for the productions of English /l/ of the same dialect. First (F1) and second formant frequency (F2) values extracted at the /l/ midpoint and Euclidean distance (ED) between English WI and WF /l/ were analyzed and compared across the productions. Results: KE children produced Korean WF /l/ with significantly higher F2–F1 values than their English counterparts and AE children's WF /l/. Acoustic patterns of KE English WI /l/ were similar to those of AE WI /l/, but variations were seen by the initial age and duration of their exposure to English. Mean ED values between English WI and WF /l/ also differed by KE children's initial age and duration of exposure to English. Conclusions: These results showed that KE children produce Korean and English WF /l/ with acoustic distinctions, but their patterns vary by the initial age and duration of their exposure to English and Korean. These findings suggest that a more detailed language background should be considered when working with bi-/multilingual children to accurately assess and examine their articulation skills.