외국인의 한국어 구어 발화에 나타난 연결어미 사용 양상 연구

The usage of connective endings in the spoken language of Korean among foreign students

This study compared the use of connective endings in the spoken language between foreign spouses (without formal education) and international students (with formal education). Their output was collected, recorded and analyzed. A total of 23,146 words were spoken. A total of 19 connective endings were used 1,859 times, an average of 8.0% in the total usage. The results showed minimal difference compared to connective ending usage by native Korean speakers. The following connective endings of high frequent usage were analyzed: ‘-고 (32.45%), -면 (16.96%), -어서 (16.61%), 는데 (13.31%), -(으)니까 (8.34%).’ The output from the two groups was close to native Korean speakers’ frequency of use. Between the two groups, the foreign spouses group indicated much higher usage of connective endings and their spoken rate, and yielded similar results from their counterpart. However, much of their output was attentive to language form and structure; accurate usage for meaning was compromised. The use of ‘-면’ in particular among foreign spouses was quite high compared to the international students and native Korean speakers. But unlike the native Korean speakers’ understanding of ‘-면’ which is used to show certain condition, foreign spouses employed an extra layer of meaning. They assumed ‘background meaning’ embedded in the “premise” of the antecedent. As such, if the usage patterns of connective endings are similar to that of native speakers and if such speech performance is seen as fluency, then such assumption points to the possibility that fluency is not firmly based on accuracy. In the case of international students, the frequency of ‘-어서’ was quite high. This goes to show that students preferred the use of ‘-어서’ over ‘-니까’ to explain reasons. Furthermore, ‘-어서’ was the preferred connector over ‘-고’ which explains the meaning of the antecedent.