This study investigated the error gravity of Korean pronunciation features as perceived by native and non-native advanced Korean speakers. The investigated phonological processes here are aspirated consonants, fortis articulation, palatalization, nasalization, lateralization, and addition of [ᄂ] or nasal /n/, both in context and in isolation. A dictogloss-esque activity, coined here as a DictoSpeak, was used to facilitate discussion between a native speaker of Korean and learners of Korean as a foreign language to ensure the occurrence of lexical items involving the target features. The discourse during the DictoSpeak was recorded and rated by native and advanced non-native speakers of Korean to determine the perceived error gravity of the target pronunciation features both in and out of the discourse context. Results suggest students could benefit from instruction on at least four of the processes. Lateralization was found to impact comprehensibility the most, followed by palatalization, nasalization, and fortis articulation. Results imply that lateralization may have a high error gravity to the listeners’ ears, and that students can benefit from targeted pronunciation instruction on the phonological processes to improve their comprehensibility.
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