Teach English in XinzhuAng Zhen - Tianjin

Pronunciation Problems in KoreaThe complexities of pronunciation within the english language can pose challenges for any english Language Learner. Korean students face specific pronunciation difficulties that are shaped and caused by their mother tongue. Through this article, we will examine the specific aspects of Korean language and english language that lie at the root of pronunciation problems for students. Through specifically analyzing the consonants, vowels and rhythm of both languages, we can better understand why these errors are made and work toward improving pronunciation instruction to Korean english Language Learners. Pronunciation of consonant phonemes in english is a challenging task because many phonemes exist in english but not in Korean. Thus, students often have trouble with perceiving and producing non-Korean sounds. These sounds can be traced to their various articulatory differences. Specifically, english consonants are articulated in the following points: Bilabial, Labiodental, Dental, Alveolar, Palatoalveolar, Palatal and Glottal. Korean, on the other hand, lacks Labiodental and Palatal consonant phonemes altogether. Some of these non-existent phonemes in the Korean language are: /b, d, g, f, v, j, ?/ among a handful of other sounds. Because of the lack of these phonemes, Korean students will often replace /b/ or /f/ with the phoneme /p/ (/p/ does exist in Korean) which can lead to a listener's total misinterpretation of their sentence. Similarly, students will often mispronounce and confuse words containing the letters ?l? and ?r?. Instead of correctly pronouncing the letter, it will sound like an ?r?. Another issue affecting Korean english Language Learners' pronunciation is the difficulty they face in distinguishing between different vowel sounds within words. This can be attributed to the nonexistence of many vowel sounds in the Korean language. In Korean, there is a total of seven distinct vowel sounds that are articulated in the front and back. By contrast, english contains twelve different vowels sounds (and diphthongs) that are front, back and central vowels. One of these common mistakes is not pronouncing the /?/ (schwa sound). For example, instead of saying, ?The plane is above (??b?v) the bridge,? a Korean student may have a tendency to say, ?The plane is above (??'pov) the bridge.? In this case, the ?a? and the ?o? of the word ?above? are pronounced differently. A lot of oral practice and critical listening can help students overcome these difficulties. Another category of pronunciation problems is that of the rhythm and stress. A native english speaker will speak with variance in terms of duration, pitch, loudness and frequency of speech. Therefore, an important element of learning pronunciation is how to effectively utilize these stress patterns. This causes Korean students difficulty because unlike english, Korean is a syllable-timed language. Thus, syllables are not elongated in the Korean language. Furthermore, in Korean, there is little variance in vowel length, which is quite different from english. A Korean student may mispronounce words due to unfamiliarity with english stress and influence from their innate speech habits. As a teacher, it is important to focus on pronunciation in ESL lessons. This can be done through positive motivation, drilling pronunciation and giving the students a lot of opportunities to speak. Korean students especially need focus on specific consonant and vowel sounds, as well as practice with english stress and rhythm. From a teacher's perspective, there are always limitations and challenges in teaching any group of english Language Learners proper pronunciation. However, it should not be overlooked. Focusing on pronunciation in the ESL classroom will benefit students greatly in their listening and speaking abilities, as well as their overall improvement of english language understanding.