The Production of Case Particles and Semantic Particles of Korean Children from Multicultural Families and Non-Multicultural Families

Choi, Mi-hyun; Jeong, Mi-ran; Hwang, Mina

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2012;17(2): 307-321.

Mi-hyun Choi^` , Mi-ran Jeong^` , and Mina Hwang^`

최미현(Mi-hyun Choi)| 정미란(Mi-ran Jeong)| 황민아(Mina Hwang)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
In the present study, the production of case particles and semantic particles of children from multi-cultural families (MCF) and non-multicultural families (NMF) was investigated.
Methods
Forty children aged 4 to 5 years participated in the present study: 20 children from MCF and 20 children from NMF. The children were of the same chronological age and language age according to the standardized screening test. Twenty-four pairs of pictures were used to elicit five types of predetermined case particles, ‘i/ga’, ‘lul’, ‘ro’, ‘eseo’ ‘hante,’ and three semantic particles, ‘do’, ‘nun’, ‘man.’ The two pictures of a pair were designed to elicit two sentences with the same structure. After the investigator described one picture of a pair, the children were asked to describe the other. For the data analysis, two multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were performed to explore group differences across the five case particles and three semantic particles.
Results
The MANOVA of the five case particles revealed a significant effect between groups, with the children from MCF showing inferior performance for the combined dependent variables than the children from NMF, while the MANOVA of the three semantic particles revealed a significant effect between groups, with the children from MCF showing inferior performance for the combined dependent variables than the children from NMF.
Discussion & Conclusion
The children from MCF produced fewer case particles and semantic particles than the children from NMF, although they showed similar scores on the standardized test. Implications for cultural factors unique to MCF are discussed in the present study.