Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in OushAn Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Anqing Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
An Overview of Korean Pronunciation ProblemsPronunciation ?refers to the ability to use the correct stress, rhythm and intonation of a word in a spoken language. A word can be spoken in different ways by various individual, or groups depending on many factors, such as: the area in which they grew up, the area in which they live, if they have a speech or voice disorder, their ethnic group, their social class, or their education? (Wikipedia online 05/30/2012). This paper will examine the common pronunciation problems of Korean speakers. I will examine some problems of constants, vowels, stress, rhythm, and intonation of Korean speakers. I will also give teaching experiences encountered with teaching pronunciation to Koreans. I have been teaching in the Republic of Korea for five years in the public schools. It is my experience that Korean speakers have difficulty with certain pronunciation sounds. Speaking Korean is radically a different language than english it can be frustrating for the native Korean speaker to pronounce certain syllabus and sounds in the english language. ?Korean has few word-final consonants and lacks both initial and final consonant clusters. Voicing in Korean is quite different from voicing in english and Korean speakers have difficulty with voiced/voiceless distinction.? (Avery and Ehrich pg 138). Consonants The consonants / p/ versus /f/ and /b/versus /v/ Avery and Ehrich explain that are problems that ?Koreans don?t have the sounds /f/ and /v/, and Korean speakers tend to substitute /p/ and /b/ respectively? (page 138). I teach elementary aged students at a Korean Elementary School. In a close observation I have noticed the words boy, problem, paper and floor just to name a few I have found to be challenging for them to pronounce. I find them pronouncing boy as ?poy? I have the students repeat after me in unison to help them better pronounce these words. ?Koreans has no voiced fricatives and Korean learners substitute voiceless stops or affricates for english voiced fricatives?. (Alvery & Ehlich Pg 138). The ?z? sound is very difficult for Korean speakers. In my experience for an example the word zone is pronounced like the ?j? sound and sounds like ?John? instead of ?zone? to a native speaker. Vowels Koreans have problems with tense and lax vowels /iy/ verses /I/, /ey/ versus /e/, /uw vs /u/. Koreans having difficulty with for example the words ?putt? and ?pot? (Alvey & Ehlich pg. 142). I find them having pronunciation problems with the words ?beat? and ?bit?. I have the class do exercises to help them to have better pronunciation. Stress & Rhythm Korean language is stressed quite different than that of english speakers what I have learned. In my observation of just casually listening to the Korean language it stressed totally different. ?It tends to be at a higher pitch on the initial syllable of a word or phrase. Thus Korean speakers have to be taught acoustics correlates of english stress. (length and loudness)? Avery & Elrich pg 142. The Korean language is syllable timed verses english is syllable stressed language. Thus one could say the rhythms are totally different from one other. ?Syllable-timed languages are claimed to have ?a characteristically even, rather staccato rhythm? Hawkins 1984: 178, while the theory that english is stressed timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will need to occur at relatively regular intervals Roach 1991: 120? (Dalton & Seidlhofer pg 41). The problems of Korean speaker?s pronunciation can be quite challenging at times for them. Intonation Korean speaker?s intonation is quite the opposite of english speakers because pitch functions differently. ? Students should practice all characteristics intonation patterns of english: final rising as used in the yes-no questions; final rising-falling as used in statements, commands and wh-questions; non final rising falling as used in complex sentences; and non final rising as used in lists? (Avery & Ehrlich page 108). In conclusion Korean speakers can find it challenging to learn the english pronunciation of words. The constants, vowels, stress & rhythm and intonation greatly differ from the english language. However, through constant practice, pronunciation drills, and evaluation the teacher can help the Korean speaker overcome these obstacles. The Korean speaker can become better with his/her english pronunciation even though the languages are radically different. References Avery, Peter and Ehrich, Susan. 1992. Teaching American english Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dalton, Christiane and Seidlhofer, Barbara. 1994. Pronunciation. In the series Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wikipedia online article: Pronunciation-May 30, 2012.
