The perception of intelligible speech sounds is important in teaching and learning of English for Korean university students. The manipulation in the reception and production of individual phonemes is the key to the successful pronunciation. This paper deals with the strengths and weaknesses in the perception of English consonant sounds, analyzed from the test results of 869 Korean freshmen students. Subjects participated in an Internet-based speech perception test and the data collected were treated electronically and analyzed statistically. The differences in the phoneme inventories of Korean and English had an effect on the average scores of each phonemic contrast. In addition, three independent variables were identified: gender, experience of learning pronunciation with foreign teachers, and time of first pronunciation study.
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
3. Research Design
4. Result Analysis
5. Conclusion