Korean Job Discussion Forums

[paperbag princess]

does anyone have any advice about teaching vowels to ele. students? we've been working on vowels forever and they aren't getting it. i know that the korean equivalent to vowels is "mo-em", but other than that, can anyone help?

thanks.

[moptop]

I had a lot of success with having students sing them. You just make up a sing-songy up and down tune and they will repeat this all fricking day.

I also wrote down a=ah=hat, e=eh=wet, i=ih=hit, o=oh=hot, u=uh=hut. I went over the pronunciation a few times and they were still having problems.

So I brought in the poop factor. "i" or "ih" was difficult for them to differentiate and pronounce so I demonstrated how a constipated person going to the bathroom would make this sound. They died laughing. sigh. The things I do for these kids!!!! The nice thing is that it works pretty well but ya get a little sick of the repeated sound effects. The "uh" sound I made the relief felt after finishing the business, and i also pretend wiped my forehead. You can bring in a can of soda and demonstrate the "ahhhhh" sound after you drink, etc.

I gave them a practice quiz out of 10 with only the sounds and they wrote the letters. Every so often I ask the class "what letter is this sound -----?" to keep it fresh in their minds and it's worked pretty well.

It's a good lesson to use in conjunction with "a/an" for which they need vowel recognition.

[some waygug-in]

Sing this to the tune of Bingo

There was a teacher - had some vowels

and so she sang the long sounds

A E I O U (X3)

and those are the long sounds.


There was a teacher had some vowels

and so she sang the short sounds

ah eh ih aw uh (X3)

and those are the short sounds.


Hope this helps

[CdnEducator]

Hi Paperbag Princess,
It may help to work on vowels in the context of words. As the other posters have said, songs work well with elementary students. Games do too. You could focus on one vowel at a time and choose songs and flash card games/other games that have words containing that vowel. (You can also focus on vowel pairs or all vowels.)
For example you could make up a simple ghost story, 4-8 lines long, and tell it very expressively to the students and have them repeat it. "There was a ghost named Homer/ He loved to eat oats/ He loved to sew coats/He loved to mow lawns/ He loved to tease goats." Etc. (Long "o" but other vowels are there too.)

[plattwaz]

I like moptop's creative idea...the obsession with ddong in this country has to be put to good use!

An activity I learned in my CELTA couse might come in handy but is hard to describe --

pick one vowel -- say "short a" and write it on the board. Make the sound, and repeat it. Use a long crayong, board marker or other similar object and hold it in front of yuo -- like an orchestra conductor would hold his baton. If you stand at one side of the room and slowly walk over, have the students make the sound continuously as you walk slowly to the other side of the room. As you raise the "baton" upwards, they should make their "ahhhhhh" higher pitched. Down lower, and they make a lower pitched noise. I also like to stop in one spot and point it as if hitting a button and the students say "Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah!" and then carry on. The first time the students dont quite get it, but then after a while they LOVE it. I make swirly motions in the air and they try to figure out how to make the sound as it would be.

After some time, I choose students to come up and be the conductor, but they always get out-of-control.....

If you can work this maneouver with two hands, it's fun to give the boys sort a, and the girls "O" and listen to them at the same time.

When I have had trouble teaching the CONCEPT of vowels, I have always had to resort to writing AEIOU on the board, teaching the word "vowels" and then writing the hangeul vowels on the board as well. The kids smack their ands on their heads and scream "Eureka!!"

[blackheart]

It also works really well to give them actions to do while they say the vowel sound. So a is tap both hands on your head and say "ah ah ah". E is touch your nose with both index fingers...keep making actions for all them. I even did them for consonants and it works great. They associate the action with the sound and its easy for them to remember. My kids picked it up real quick this way. Oh, and review, review, review. Works well to make games such as plattwaz mentioned.

[ambvalent]

omg, you people are frickin geniuses.

My coteach and I decided that on Monday, I will start a 10 minute phonetics / pronunciation component in each of our classes; 3rd, 4th and 5th. I will devise a system based on your ideas to start out with.

So far, I have found out in the first two weeks that 9 out of 10 children cannot distinguish between the vowel sounds "live" and "leave" phonetically, or "mother" vs. "maw-ther", and having just started learning hangul myself, it makes sense that these are mistakes they would make. So I gotta hit the basics. These are the same problems my older korean friends have, so I'm pretty motivated.

Any suggestions on particular lesson plans / materials / books that could help me out?

[tomato]

I had some luck with a handmade concentration game.
On one-third of the cards, write a C-V-C noun with a capital letter and an S in the corner.
On one-third of the cards, write a C-V-C verb with a V in the corner.
On one-third of the cards, write a C-V-C noun with a period at the end and an O in the corner.
Any SVO combination will give you a grammatically correct, albeit nonsensical, sentence.

I have one deck of SVO cards for each short vowel.

[some waygug-in]

I have used a similar card game as well, but the one I use is based on the crazy 8's game.

You make 8 cards for each short vowel sound. (with a picture)

You get some colored stickers - preferably 8 colors.

You make a few "crazy cards". Not too many. (4 is lots)

You can also add 1 or 2 take two cards and a reverse direction card or 2.

You play the game just like Crazy 8's, they have to match the cards according to the vowel sound or the color sticker.

You can make another set for long vowel sounds, but keep them separate or the students will get confused.

If you are not a great artist, you can use the Up and Away in Phonics book to make your cards.

Hope this helps

[paperbag princess]

awesome, thanks for the help guys. i appreciate it tons.

[ambvalent]

How would you introduce the concept of vowel sounds initially, in a fun way, to 3rd graders? They know the letters of course, but they don't know what the short sounds are.

[tomato]

I have looked everywhere for a set of picture story books in which all of the the words in each story either rhyme or alliterate.
For instance, one story might be about Mat the Cat who sat on a hat.
Another story might be about a hag with a rag bag.
Anyone who writes such a series will probably find it profitable.
If anyone reading this message has the necessary writing talent and artistic talent, do a favor for both yourself and me.