| Author: | Sim, Sin Ae |
| Title: | Explicit and implicit instruction, and individual differences in L2 Korean phonological rule learning |
| Advisors: | Kim, Sun-A (CBS) Fung, Roxana (CBS) Feng, William (ENGL) |
| Degree: | DALS |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Subject: | Korean language -- Study and teaching Korean language -- Phonology Second language acquisition Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities |
| Pages: | x, 158 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This dissertation investigates the relative efficacy of explicit and implicit instruction on Korean phonological rule learning, and how individual differences in working memory capacity, foreign language learning ability, and motivation predict the learning of Korean phonological rules. Eighty-two learners in a beginning-level Korean course at a university participated in a classroom experiment for a semester. The participants received either explicit or implicit instruction on five different Korean phonological rules, namely, resyllabification, obstruent nasal assimilation, post-nasal verb stem tensification, h-deletion, and aspiration. They also completed tests for measuring verbal working memory, visuospatial working memory, phoneme identification ability, phonetic coding ability, rote memory in foreign language learning, and motivation. This thesis attempted to answer three research questions. First, between explicit and implicit instruction, which is more effective in L2 learning of Korean phonological rules? Second, what are the effects of explicit and implicit instruction on learners with different working memory capacities (high or low)? Third, how do individual differences in working memory (verbal and visuospatial), phoneme identification ability, phonetic coding ability, rote memory in foreign language learning, or motivation affect L2 learning of Korean phonological rules? Results suggest that the explicit instruction was more effective than implicit instruction. The difference between the explicit and implicit groups was more recognizable in the acquisition of relatively complicated phonological rules, while the explicit and implicit groups performed equally well in straightforward, high-frequency phonological rules. When divided by high and low working memory groups, explicit and implicit instruction were equally effective for the high verbal working memory group, while explicit instruction was more effective for the low verbal working memory group. This result shows that different teaching methods may lead to different learning outcomes depending on learners' individual differences in working memory capacity. A regression analysis revealed that visuospatial working memory predicts learning of Korean phonological rules in an inverse relationship, suggesting that learners with strong visuospatial working memory pay particular attention to the written form of Korean letters. Also, regression analysis results provide evidence that individual differences in language learning aptitude and motivation affect the learning outcomes of the implicit instruction group. The results of this research are expected to provide insights to the field of second language acquisition by discovering how and to what extent the effectiveness of different teaching methods and individual differences in cognitive abilities are related. The findings are discussed in terms of pedagogical implications for the field of Korean as a Foreign Language and are expected to contribute to the teaching and learning of Korean phonological rules. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5876.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.27 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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