Teach English in Xietulu Jiedao - Shanghai Shi

Korean difficulties with EnglishKorea is a big market for ESL these days and the demand for Native Speakers continues to grow. I have been teaching in a small down on the southern tip of the peninsula for about a year now. All of my students have different needs, but there are some general difficulties that I have noticed while teaching in this area. Koreans, in general, have difficulties in certain aspects of grammar and pronunciation. The pronunciation problems that exist for Koreans are due to the differences in the two languages. For example, in the Korean language, consonants are never back to back in the same syllable. And, ?Korean words never have more than 2 consonants pronounced in one syllable (Teaching english to Native Koreans).? A word like ?state? is difficult for beginners. A new learner will usually try to add a vowel sound in between the ?s? and the ?t.? It might sound something like this: ?su tate.? This is something I must focus on when giving feedback for pronunciation. Even if the students have learned previously how to accurately say words with back-to-back consonants, they will sometimes revert back to adding vowels in between. In particular, Koreans struggle with ending ?l? and ending ?r? sounds. So, when an ?r? and an ?l? are back-to-back in a word students can struggle tremendously. Words like ?world,? ?pearl,? and ?girl? can be extremely difficult. Another pronunciation problem involves vowel sounds. I have learned how to read in Korean, so, I have noticed firsthand how different some of the vowel sounds are. For example, there is no ?i? sound as in ?kid? in Korean. For this reason, Koreans will say ?keed? instead of ?kid? and ?speen? instead of ?spin.? The biggest pronunciation problem that I have noticed with Koreans is with ?v,? ?th,? ?z,? and ?f? sounds. ?Some english sounds do not exist in Korean, which include friction sounds(Teaching english to Native Koreans).? A perfect example is the Korean pronunciation of the word ?pizza.? Korean has borrowed this word from the english language, but it is pronounced much differently because of the lack of friction sounds. Koreans say ?peeja.? ?That? is pronounced like ?dat,? ?feel? is pronounced like ?peel,? and the letter, ?v? will be pronounced like ?booweey.? With most pronunciation problems I have found that the younger the child is the easier he or she can adapt and pick up the new sounds. My kindergartners are the best at pronunciation of all my classes. My adults have the most difficulties of all. Another area of english that Koreans struggle with is grammar. ?Korean does not conjugate verbs using agreement with the subject(The Differences between english and Korean).? This can make english verb conjugation difficult for Koreans. Many times the student will use the 3rd person plural version of the verb for 3rd person singular. ?She take me to the store,? ?James go home,? and ?The dog eat food? are common types of mistakes that I have seen. Another grammar problem exists because of the sentence structure differences in the two languages. The english structure, as we know, is a subject, verb, object word order. But, the Korean structure is subject, object, verb (The differences between english and Korean). A beginner or false beginner will usually have difficulties with the english structure. Instinctually, many will want to say, ?David home go.? Again, adults struggle with remembering the structure more than younger students. In writing, the adults will almost always arrange the sentence correctly, but when trying to speak they will, many times, revert to the subject, object verb structure. These grammar and pronunciation problems are just some of the more obvious difficulties that I have noticed teaching english in South Korea. The younger the student is the easier it seems to be for him or her to conquer these common problems. The main problem that I see with Korean students is that they do not have much opportunity to practice english in their daily lives. There are relatively few foreigners in Korea and most Koreans are not closed to fluent. The successful students that I have seen make an effort to meet and spend time with individuals or groups of foreigners. The ones that use english on a regular basis in and outside the classroom are able to excel. Any language problem can be overcome with study and practice. Work Cited Teaching english to Koreans. Retrieved on February 12, 2011 from http://hiteacher.com/korea/teaching-english-to-koreans.htm The Differences Between english and Korean. Retrieved on February 12, 2011 from http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/korean.htm