Teach English in Maogang Zhen - Shanghai Shi

Pronunciation problems of learners in South KoreaEnglish learners of any background will, at some point, encounter typical pronunciation problems that need to be corrected by a teacher, however there are also problems that are specific to Korean language learners. As we currently live and teach english is Korea, we encounter these pronunciation errors on a daily basis. In this essay we will introduce some of the major pronunciation errors made by Korean learners of english. R vs. L Korean language learners often struggle with the pronunciation of ?R? and ?L?. One of the reasons for this difficulty is that in the Korean language there is a similar consonant sound ???. This Korean consonant is a mixture of the ?R? and ?L? consonant sounds of the english alphabet. Depending on the positioning of this consonant in a Korean word, the sound slightly varies from the ?R? to the ?L?. Examples of common errors might include: Grocery ? Glocery or Light ? Right B vs. P The sounds associated with the consonants ?B? and ?P? are both produced by pressing your lips together and releasing, with ?B? being voiced and ?P? unvoiced. These two sounds are included in the Korean language; however they are often interchangeable, for example: The city of Busan in South Korea has two spellings, ?Busan? and ?Pusan?. To a native english speaker the difference between a ?beach? and a ?peach? is very distinct, where to many Korean students of english, they both sound the same. B vs. V In the Korean language there are no labiodentals. This means that a Korean must make an extra effort to pronounce the sound for ?V?. Many times the ?V? is simply pronounced as a ?B? or is pronounced as ?buee? for ease. For example the word ?very? when spoken by a Korean english speaker sounds like ?berry?. The Korean language frequently takes loan words from english and writes them in Korean. P vs. F This pronunciation mistake is similar with the above. The ?F? consonant belongs to the labiodentals, which are non-existent in the Korean language system. A very common example of a mistake comes with the word ?Fish?. To many Korean speakers, the words ?Fish? sounds like ?Pish?. Final ?-S? Korean learners of english tend to drop the final ?s? sound when speaking of plurals. This leads to a lot of confusion when speaking to native english speakers as it is unclear whether the speaker is talking about one thing or many. An example sentence of this would be: ?I have many apple?. As opposed to ?I have many apples?. This mistake is also quite frequently seen in the simple present tense. An example of this would be. ?He talk to his mother on the phone?. The talk lacks the final ??s? sound. J vs. Z The sound associated with the ?Z? consonant is very difficult for a Korean speaker of english. It is frequently confused with the ?J? consonant sound. Two common examples of this mistake are present with the words ?Zoo? and ?Pizza? which a frequently mispronounced as ?Joo? and ?Peeja? respectively. Adding additional vowel sounds The Korean language system operates on a CVC format, however in english; it is possible to have up to 3 consonants together. Korean learners have a tendency to add additional vowel sounds. Consider the word ?threw?. Often a Korean learner will add an additional vowel between the ?th? and the ?rew? giving a word that sounds like ?thu-rew?. Every culture learning english has problems with pronunciation and it is not limited to only Korean speakers, however this paper outlined the most frequently encountered pronunciation errors that might be made by a Korean language learner. With the help of a native english speaking teacher, many of these errors can be corrected through the use of tongue twister style activities and frequent correction.