2015, Vol., No.45

The Japanese Language Association of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.0

pISSN : 1229-7275
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jlak

This study is a comprehensive analysis of problems with pronunciation in Japanese language observedin conversational speech by Korean learners.Based on the result, it also investigatesrealisation of pronunciation education of Japanese language in Korea. The results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, it was revealed that most of Korean learners’ pronunciation problems in Japanese language are caused by general linguistic transition, commonly observed in learners from various language backgrounds. Secondly, to investigate the correlation between Japanese language proficiency and pronunciation proficiency of Korean learners, pronunciation error frequency for all learners and pronunciation error frequency per person were analyzed on the basis of OPI(Oral Proficiency Interview) levels with 12 types of pronunciation items. As a result, it was revealed that there was no consistent correlation between OPI levels and pronunciation proficiency. In fact, there was a case when OPI levels and pronunciation proficiency were reversed depending onthe pronunciation item. Thirdly, as a result of reviewing pronunciation difficulty of Japanese language, it was revealed that special morae had difficulty in ‘insertion and deletion of long vowels’, ‘insertion of geminate consonants’, and segments had difficultyin “Palatalization of non-palatalized consonants’, ‘Devocalization of initial voiced stops and affricates’, ‘vocalization of medial voiceless stops and affricates’ and ‘weakening of medial /h/’. Lastly, it is very important to develop a syllabus and curriculum on pronunciation education in Korea by reviewing the acquisition of Japanese language pronunciation in detail through the comprehensive analysis of pronunciation problems in Japanese language experienced by Korean learners.

Meta-communicative expressions are words and phrases used to help express clearly what one is speaking, or to avoid causing a feeling ofdiscomfort in one’s listener. These expressions frequently appear when one attempts to supplement the information in advance of one’s speech or to make an adjustment for what one has just said. In this paper, I firstly pick out examples of ‘meta-language expressions used in conflicts’ from film and drama scenarios, and classify them according to three functions; i) management of communication process, ii) management of inter-personal relationship, and iii) consideration for norms in language life. The result shows that the use of meta-communicative expressions in conflict situations is more frequent in Japanese than in Korean. I will focus on why they are used so often in Japanese in future investigation.

Ambiguous constructions are closely related with types of word orders. Many ambiguous constructions coming into being are due to the typology of word order. By virtue of the comparison between harmonious word order language (the word order of whichis similar to the ones of most languages in the world) and inharmonious word order language (the word order of which is dissimilar to the ones of most languages in the world), this study attempts to show that the former possesses less amounts of ambiguous constructions, andthe latter has more amounts of ambiguous constructions. In addition, the former’s (such as Japanese) ambiguous constructions hardly have any productivity, while the latter’s (such as Chinese) ambiguous constructions mostly have very high productivity.