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TEFL Westford Vermont

Check out Tesolcourse.com about TEFL Westford Vermont and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad.

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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:

said:
For the past 20 years South Korea has been well known for its high demand for quality english teachers. Large companies in Korea recognise english as a valuable asset and has become somewhat of a minimum requirement to be considered for a positions in recent years. Competition for those positions is fierce and sending children to english academies has become a norm in the country for parents. In the past (during the 70/80s), Korea mainly taught english without the aid of a native english speaker and had countless english books and listening tapes that systematically dissected, explained and taught the english language where native Koreans taught english. Even today most grammar, reading and writing are taught by Korean teachers. Students would study countless hours and achieve high scores in TOEIC and TOEFL without the help of a native english speaker. So why is there a demand for native english teachers in Korea? The answer lies in the difference in how baby boomers and echo boomer/gen Y speak english in Korea. Korean baby boomers who are in high positions are capable of speaking english well; however, a grade 9 student from Seoul is somehow able to speak english in a more natural and fluid manner. This is possible because they received instruction from a native english speaker teaching their own natural tone and pronunciation. Since the older generations learned english from a native Korean, the way he/she pronounces such words would be taught onto the students and may lack the clarity and accuracy that only a native english speaker can provide. Native english speakers may have the ability to teach proper pronunciation but it is also important for them to identify the problems that are associated with teaching such content to Korean students. This research paper will cover specific pronunciation problems that Korean students experience with english so english teachers can overcome them using practice drills, place articulation through example and possibly teaching the phonemic alphabet. Like other East Asian languages, Koreans have trouble pronouncing the letter ‘r' which sounds more like an ‘l' sound when spoken. Many will pronounce ‘read' as ‘lead', ‘river' as ‘liver' and so on. This problem is notorious to students in Asia and is be the most difficult to correct. Like the ‘l' and ‘r' sounds, another letter that Koreans will have problems with is the ‘f' sound. Since there is no ‘f' sound in the Korean language, f words would sound like ‘p' and ‘hu' sounds. Therefore, words like ‘fashion' would sound like ‘passion' or ‘fight' would be ‘hu-ai-teu'. The ‘v' sound is just as elusive as the ‘r' sound for many languages. Koreans will likely pronounce ‘v' as ‘b'. However, there are far less words in the english vocabulary where ‘v' and ‘b' are interchangeable to create actual words (vile or bile). Even though most native english speakers will understand what the learner is talking about, it is still important to practice pronunciation for them to receive the full benefit of the teacher's skills. Koreans will have a slight problem over stressing vowel sounds ‘eu' at the end of certain words ending with a consonant such as ‘bed' and ‘beh-deu' or words ending with a consonant. The slight overstress is negligible but it is good to take note on certain words where there is more overstress (please-PLEA-JEU). With stress and intonation, the Korean language is broken into syllables where each sound is composed of 2-4 characters to form words. The stressing of words is linear where the first syllable of a word is always stressed (PI-ja- pizza, JA-khet-eu-jacket); however, english is not so linear when it comes to this as it contains roughly 5 rules for stressors. For sentence intonation, the verb is usually pitched and is less likely to change in a normal conversation; putting intonation on another word besides the verb can show blame, disrespect, ignorance or rudeness towards the listener. Despite the fact that native english teachers are capable of teaching other aspects of english, Koreans are more concerned with their ability to teach pronunciation and to immerse students in an english speaking environment; many Korean schools hire them mainly for that benefit.


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