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PROBLEMS FOR LEARNERS OF ENGLISH IN KOREAINTRODUCTION The korean and English languages vary dramatically. The differences between the two languages, and the inconsistency of English itself, can result in the students having problems with pronunciation and grammar. In addition to this, the cultural and religious differences between the cultures from which the languages arise can impact on the way English is understood and used by korean students. PRONOUNCIATION PROBLEMS The main problem that korean students are faced with is that of pronunciation. The problem arises for several reasons: 1) sounds of letters; 2) phonemics and 3) stress and intonation In the korean language, each letter of the alphabet corresponds to only one sound (phoneme). In English, however, an English letter can correspond to different sounds, and be pronounced in several different ways depending on the word. The fact that English has adopted many words from other languages compounds the problem as English letters used in these words are pronounced differently to the normal English rules of pronunciation (EG: ?ballet? and ?buffet? which are French). Different English accents and dialects also tend to pronounce different words with different sounds (EG the ?a? in ?can?t? in the American accent is pronounced in the same way as the ?a? in ?apple?; whereas in the South African accent it is pronounced in the same way as the ?a? in ?are?). The second, and more profound problem which korean students have with pronunciation, is that some of the sounds needed to produce English words do not exist in the korean Language. Kwan-Young Oh in his paper ?The Phonological Role in English Pronunciation Instruction? points out that while in English there are bilabial, labiodentals, dental, alveolar, palatoalveolar, palatal, velar and glottal sounds; in korean there are only bilabial, alveolar, palatoalveolar, velar and glottal sounds. According to him the phonemes which don?t exist in korean are: b, d, g, f, v, ?, ð, ò, dz, tò, , and j. As a result most koreans will confused the following sounds: /f/ & /v/; /p/ & /b/; /?/ & /ð/; /t/ & /d/; /z/, /j/ & /dz/, and /r/ & /l/ and because of this communication is often severally stunted. The third pronunciation hurdle which students have to jump over is that of stress. In korean there is no such thing as changing the stress of words or syllables. While volume can change stress does not. koreans therefore have no innate comprehension of how changing the stress of a syllable or word can change its meaning. A large degree of English communication depends not on the actual words used, but rather how they are said. Nuances such as this are often lost on Asian English speakers. GRAMMATICAL PROBLEMS The most fundamental difference between the korean structure of sentences and the English structure of sentences is word order. The basic pattern for an English sentence follows the order: Subject, Verb, Object; while the korean pattern is: Subject, Object, Verb. This means that when asked a question in English a korean learner will have to reorder the words to make sense of the question, think of the answer, and then translate and reorder the answer before answering the question out loud. This is often why korean students delay in answering questions. Other grammatical differences include: The position of adverbs, subject-verb agreement and the position of relative clauses. In korean adverbs always come before the verb, there is no conjugation or inflection, and relative clauses come prior to nouns. If korean students revert to their known syntax errors such as the following may present: ? 'Yesterday at school I Sun-mi met' or ?I yesterday at school Sun-mi met' instead of ?I met sun-mi yesterday at school? ? "I really want to meet who the sportsman" instead of "the sportsman who I really want to meet." CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS One of the ways in which culture influences language is that the English language is focused on the individual whereas in korea the focus is on the collective. This means that korean students will often use ?we? and ?our? in place of ?I? and ?my? in such a way that seems out of context to English speakers. CONCLUSION korean students face an uphill battle when it comes to learning English. The idiosyncrasies of the English and the cultural which underpin the language make understanding the formation and use of the language a challenge for any learner. EFL teachers should bear in mind the reasons for the mistakes that the students make, and approach lessons in such a way that special attention is given to problem areas. Bibliography: Byung-Eun Cho ?Issues Concerning korean Learners of English: English Education in korea and Some Common Difficulties of korean students? The East Asian Learner Vol. 1 (2) Nov. 2004 SungKongHoe University, Seoul, korea Kwan-Young Oh ?The Phonological Role in English Pronunciation Instruction? Yosu National University accessible at www.paaljapan.org/resources/proceedings/PAAL9/.../OhKwanY.pdf accessed on 13 January 2012 Nathan R. Bauman ?A Catalogue of Errors Made by korean Learners of English? KOTESOL International Conference 2006 Abstract & Paper accessed at http://onlinepedagogy.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/a-catalogue-of-errors-made-by-korean-learners-of-english/ accessed on 13 January 2012
