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Pronunciation Problems in Korea (31) Having spent 3 years teaching and tutoring Korean students, I have come across multiple sounds that the students have trouble pronouncing. These mispronunciations can lead to miscommunications, which can also affect the students' speaking confidence. Therefore, it is necessary to help correct the students' pronunciation. The main pronunciation problems facing Korean students are distinguishing the 'r' and 'l' sound and producing the 'th' sound. First of all, the most common pronunciation problem with Korean students is distinguishing the 'r' and 'l' sound. They will often be unable to produce the 'l' sound and use the 'r' sound instead. I never knew how much of a problem this was for them, until my first year of teaching esl in Korea. I was teaching young students, and almost all of them had trouble with the 'r' and 'l' pronunciation. They especially had difficulty if there were an 'r' and an 'l' sound next to each other, such as in 'world'. Later, I found out that part of the problem stemmed from their native language. In Korean, the same character is used for the 'r' and 'l' sound. This may be part of the reason why they have trouble with these sounds. There are exercises and activities that can be done to help the students identify and correct their pronunciation. In my classes, I would provide two words with the same sounds except for the 'r' and 'l'. This allows the students to compare the two sounds and hear the difference. For example, the words 'right' and 'light' can be used. It is very helpful to use mouth diagrams during this part. The sounds can be said as a class, and then individual drilling exercises can be done to practice the sounds. The students can see how their tongue and mouth should be positioned, and they can practice the words to see how they change. Another exercise is to have the students say the words 'word' and 'world'. This exercise forces the students to make a different sound to produce different words. If they don't add another sound, the words will sound the same. Finally, tongue twisters can be used in class to practice these sounds. They can be used at the beginning of class on a regular basis to continually practice these sounds. With continued drills and exercises, the students are able to correct their pronunciation of 'r' and 'l'. Next, Korean students will usually have trouble producing the 'th' sound. They will usually use a 'd' or an 's' sound. Although the 'th' sound is very common in english, there is no equivalent sound in the Korean language. The 'th' sound will often be replaced with a 'd' or 't' sound, so the word 'thank' will sound like 'dank' or 'tank'. Also, there are many english words that are written in Korean characters using different sounds, which results in Koreans thinking that certain words sound a certain way. For example, 'theater' is written with an 's' sound to start it. Some ways to help the students correct this mispronunciation are by drilling and doing pronunciation exercises. Again, it is helpful for the students to distinguish the difference in the 'th' sound from others. This can be done by having students say two similar words with only the 'th' sound being different. The words 'bat', 'bath', 'bad', and 'bass' can be used to help them compare and contrast the sounds. Drilling exercises with these words can be used as a class and individually. Also, mouth diagrams will help to show the students where their tongues should be when producing the sound. The students should practice sticking their tongues out to produce the 'th' sound. Exaggeration of the mouth form will help the students see how the sound is produced. These exercises will help correct their pronunciation. In conclusion, Korean students have pronunciation problems with the 'r' and 'l' sounds and the 'th' sound. Some of the ways to correct these pronunciation problems are displaying mouth diagrams, drilling, and pronunciation exercises. By having patience with the students and not rushing through exercises, the students will be able to correct their pronunciation.
