Understanding of the Liaison Rule in the Hangul Reading among 5-to 9-Year-Old Children

Lee, Eun-Seon; Dong-ISeok,

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2006;11(1): 108-120.

Eun-Seon Lee^` , and Dong-ISeok^`

이은선(Eun-Seon Lee)| 석동일(Dong-I1 Seok)

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to determine the level of understanding of the liaison rule, by targeting 120 children aged 5 years to 9 years and 11 months by giving them reading tasks. We chose this age range because subjectional vowels are important variables in the liaison rule of reading. This study focused on investigating the correlation between liaison rule development and age, postposition, number of syllables and phoneme. The study procedure examined 64 sentences with the liaison rule. The data analysis was based on the Pronunciation Law, clauses 13 and 14. The understanding of the liaison rule by children aged 5 was significantly lower than that by children aged 6-9. The results also showed significant variation between individuals within the same age group. In addition, children commonly made errors with the words containing the /ㅅ/ phoneme which is out of harmony with the pure Korean phonemes. Children aged 7-9 did not show significant differences, which led us to believe that the development of the liaison rule was the most active from the age of 7. These results on the development of the liaison rule according to age suggests that the rules of the Korean alphabets and phonemes should be taught before the liaison rule. In conclusion, we believe that the liaison rule should be taught at age 5 when the children begin to read and after a complete understanding of phonemes has been developed, i.e., the rules of the Korean alphabets and phonemes should be taught first.