Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JFuller317]

How can I reach these keeeeeds?

Well, that's the way my students would read "kids" if I wrote it on the board. I've spend hours and hours over the past month trying to teach some of my students to say the short i sound correctly, and some of them get it occasionally, but revert back to the "long e" or 이 sound by the next class. For others, it's just hopeless.

These kids just cannot comprehend that the short i in pig, India or igloo is not the same as their vowel 이. Despite the fact that I stress over and over that short i is not 이, they just cannot fathom that this could be true, since Konglish teaches them that short i is, in fact, 이.

I've tried to tell them to imagine a sound between 에 and 이, and sometimes that will get them pronouncing this correctly for a few minutes, but they invariably revert back to 이. I want to pull my hair out.

I had no trouble learning their vowel 으, which doesn't exist in our phonetic vocabulary, so why can't they do the same for our vowels that don't exist in theirs?

[bobranger]

maybe this will help:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

Click on the american flag.

Also go through a progression of iy as in "seat" I as in "sit" and e as in "set". Have patience. For some reason it is a hard sound for ESLers to master.

A good pronunciation book is "Pronunciation Pairs".
I think I have some old lesson in pdf form. PM me with an e-mail address and I will send them to you.

[mj roach]

most of the kids seem to know how to pronounce the words 'it' and 'in'....try using them as a place to start when working on their pronunciation

[CPT]

It's a tough one.

I think it's one of those things where you can do whatever you want to teach it, and then their Korean teacher (or other Korean people they know who speak English) will come in with their long E sound for short I words and undo everything.

I try to stress it whenever it's relevant to the lesson, but other than that, I give up.

[rationality]

[ajuma]

They can say the "In" in Incheon, so maybe you can build with that?

[ajuma]

They can say the "In" in Incheon, so maybe you can build with that?

[danby_ll]

[Darkray16]

I would suggest using minimal pairs repeatedly and change them each day and include them in sentences.

bit beat
live leave
kill keel
pit pete

When I need a ESL student to pronounce a sound that doesn't exist in their language I use minimal pairs almost exclusively. Although this was a one on one basis if that matters.

[Darkray16]

[WK2008]

There is some dialectal variation in Hangugeo, particularly among the vowels. So, it doesn't surprise me that forum participants would argue over which vowels come out [i] (similar to "beat," but without the "y" glide) and which ones are pronounced [I] (as in "bit"). One answer would be to listen carefully to the local speech, and see if there are any words locally that use the variant you want.

What I suggest, however, is very different. You could tackle this head-on, in other words, and carefully teach each vowel used in English. This would require patience, of course, and some persistence. Learning to pronounce unusual sounds is difficult, particularly if the students are nearing or past puberty.

This approach has several advantages. It's comprehensive, and so it will teach not only the /i/ vs. /I/ that you noticed, but also the correct pronunciation of all the other English vowels. It's more rigorous, and should have a more lasting effect. Most importantly, it works.

Students who follow a rigorous articulatory phonetics course can learn to speak foreign languages with virtually no accent. My own pronunciation of Spanish, Hindi, Lakhota Sioux, Tok Pisin, Lesotho/Tswana, and now Hangugeo has been vastly improved by undergoing such a course. It actually gets me in trouble, as native speakers assume that I'm fluent. A few, quick grammatical mistakes on my part sets them right, of course...

You don't have to spend an entire semester, however, teaching them every sound of every heretofore analyzed language. You can focus on the English sounds, and teach an abbreviated lesson. Maybe an hour per day, for a few days.

[CPT]

On the other hand, does anyone else know a bunch of foreigners who say Itaewon with the short I sound?

For some reason it drives me nuts.