This paper investigated the effects of Korean syllable structure on the acquisition of English consonant clusters on the basis of the speech data collected from a total of 8 Korean middle school students (2 females and 6 males). A total of 24 English monosyllabic words that formed 8 different quasi minimal triplets was employed and recorded. Each triplet consisted of mono-consonantal, bi-consonantal, and tri-consonantal words like pin, spin, spring or pin, pink, pinks. The three words at four triplets were differentiated by the number of consonants at the onset position and those at the other four triplets, at the coda position. Using a 5 point-scale scoring method, two native English speakers rated the speech data in terms of (i) intelligibility and (ii) the scoring of bi- and tri-consonantal words with three points being fixed on mono-syllabic words. The main finding was that the tri-consonantal words scored the lowest, bi-consonantal words were in the middle, and mono-consonantal words scored the highest. But, this general tendency held true only at the words dissimilar at the coda position. At the onset position, on the other hand, the mono-consonantal words scored the lowest. The in-depth analysis that followed the rating showed that a comparison of the words in terms of the syllabic intelligibility can be properly made only when each consonant comprising a syllable is intelligibly articulated on its own.

Chong, Song-Yun. 1999. The Alternation of Liquid Sounds and Syllable Structure. Studies in Modern Grammar 17, 1-14. The erratic alternation of liquid sounds in English sound production is one of the recalcitrant problems for Korean students. This problem is caused by the differences in phonemic distribution between Korean and English languages. I will argue that the differences in phonemic system(other than the range of its distribution) between these languages hardly explicate the reason why in one position the lateral([l]) is replaced by flapping([r]) and in certain other position the flapping is replaced by lateral. This fact, as I have observed, has nothing to do with phonemic inventory (or system) of both languages. This alternation can be recognizable by analyzing the differences of syllable structure along with the syllable constituents between Korean and English. Incidentally, the (re)syllabification setting up by Korean in English sound production is crucial to account for the erroneous substitution of [l] for [r] or vice versa. I am going to use, therefore, the binary branching syllable structure and justify that the erratic alternation can be normalized by relocating the lateral/flapping sounds in syllable constituents.