A Study of the Rhythm of Native, Chinese, and Korean Speakers of English in Read Speech

This study investigated the rhythm of read speech in English of six native English speakers, 10 Chinese speakers and 10 Korean speakers by means of the durational variability in adjacent vowel intervals using normalized Pairwise Variability Indices (nPVI). The results of the analysis identified rhythmic differences among the three groups. The rhythm of Korean speakers’ English is more syllable-timed than that of the native English speakers, and Chinese speakers are intermediate between the other groups. The L1 rhythm of Chinese and Korean speakers was also examined to see whether the speakers exhibit different rhythms according to their L1. The results showed that Chinese speakers and Korean speakers do not show the same rhythmic tendencies as their L1 when speaking English. Through this study, we can conclude that, although L1 interference of Chinese and Korean speakers is not prominent in their English-speaking rhythm, it is somewhat difficult for Korean speakers to acquire proper English rhythm due to the different syllabic structures between Korean and English.