The Role of Segmentals in Word Reading in English Among Native Speakers of Korean

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Issues in Literacy Research Roundtable 5

Abstract

While evidence shows that consonants play a primary role in reading Roman scripts, it remains unclear whether this primacy extends to reading other non-Roman scripts. This study investigated the role of vowels in L2 English word reading among native Korean readers (N = 38), compared to native speakers of English (N = 38). Stimuli included four conditions: lowercase, uppercase, letter strings with no vowels (e.g., cmmn for common), and letter strings with randomly missing letters (e.g., corct for correct). Results showed that latency of reading vowel-missing letter strings was significantly different between the two groups. The findings suggest that the consonant letter primacy seen in Roman scripts may not fully extend to other alphabetic languages.

Author

• Hye K. Pae, University of Cincinnati