Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sirius black]

The parents of a child I am teaching wants her to speak with a 'standard' American accent.
This child is 9 years old and lived in America until 7 years old but the two years back in Korea has eventually eroded her American accented English to the point where the child speaks English well but with the cadence of a Korean accent.
Its a one on one class and I'm looking for methods I can use to correct it. In our free talks (it has been a month so far), I've begun to make the student aware of it and correcting it when I hear it. The student knows but doesn't consciously think before speaking (which is normal). I don't want them to be self conscious either and thank goodness so far it doesn't appear to be the case.

[sigmundsmith]

Unfortunately, the parents wants are going to be difficult to achieve. Accent/pronunciation in any language is determined by time spent in a particular environment. Unless the child is surrounded and interacting with native American speakers on a regular, daily basis their goal is realistically unattainable. Just spending time with you a few hours a week will do little to accomplish this either. She spends (edit) 99.9% of her week with her Korean friends, Korean family and relatives, Korean TV and education and 0.1% with you a week (I'm not good at math so please don't judge me on my percentage break down, but I think you get the point). You might need to explain this to the parents.

Also, Koreans need to understand that for a Korean speaking English, there is nothing wrong sounding Korean.

[ttompatz]

Practice and exposure.

A couple hours per week with you won't make any different if she has "Korean English" teachers at school and/or her hagwan (where her change in her accent comes from).

English TV, videos, cartoons, movies, music is one way to maintain exposure, especially if her comprehension is high enough to make it enjoyable rather than a chore.

Practice is what it is.

.

[Kirkasu]

I was a theater arts teacher back home, and any dialect work involved using the international phonetic alphabet (IPA). It's what actors use for vowel shifts, etc when studying dialects. But, as she's 9, I'm not sure how much help that will be...

When I took my Voice for the Stage class in college, we would focus on one dialect, discuss the vowel shifts, and we would have sentences that focused on specific sounds. We would use a voice recorder to record the sentences with the given dialect (we started with Standard American), and our teacher would listen to them and respond on a weekly basis. Again, since she's 9, this is probably way over her head, but maybe you can adapt it?

[dharma bum]

This is based on my studies of foreign languages more than it is on any teaching experience, but here's what I might try:

I think having your student watch American TV shows, etc., on her own time might have a positive impact. Singing along with songs, etc., might also help. Reading aloud helps with pronunciation and getting the words out, and I'm wondering if it might also help improve her accent if she can be conscious of her cadence while doing it. You could also record her voice in class if you wanted to have her listen to it and to pinpoint specific problems she might be having.

Obviously, there's a lot more you can do with her in class, but these things might be good for her outside of class to make up for the lack of time you have with her.

[alongway]

I can't imagine she's got that much of an accent after 2 years..
I've had students who are in their 30s..lived in the US for only a couple years as young children (kindergarten/elementary) and even with nothing more than a standard Korean education they have nothing more than a slight tonal shift in their voice. (not even really an accent) Unless they spent the 7 years in K-Town at a Korean school I just don't see it.

[cj1976]

As young kids growing up in rural England, my friends and I couldn't help using a fake American accent when playing together. All the popular TV shows and movies were from the USA, so naturally we mimicked their voices in the playground. I used to run around pretending to be Mr T, or Murdoch from the A-Team, or He-Man (it was the 80s haha).
That was just fantasy and role-playing though. When the game was over, we went back to our 'normal' identity. Changing a kid's accent through limited exposure to, and limited usage of a particular accent is going to be tough, if not impossible.

[drydell]

This is why Koreans fail to become good English speakers.. So frustrating..

I don't see the Spanish or French or German or Italian's who learn English have some craven need to imitate a particular country's accent.. What's the point?..

Just learn to speak English .. Forget about parroting an accent.. It's wierd

[chellovek]

Just try to make sure the kid doesn't sound like the presenters on Arirang News....or most other Arirang programmes. The accents alone make them unwatchable.

[le-paul]

How Ive done it in the past is (and now in my classroom);

1/ start by changing the pronunciation of articles and prepostions. When youve got that, move onto the next thing. Simple phrases also work with this if you take one at a time and re-do it over and over. (eg there is going to be a storm - thersgonna bea storrm).
2/ read alot, you can criticise alot of pronunciation if youre reading as you can stop and re-read. you can also teach youre student not to pronounce every word and sylable whe youre reading eg 'the birds are' - 'the birdsr').
3/ teach alot of new vocab (obviously something thats going to be practical) and teach them in the accent required. - that way if the parents want a little show - you can show them too.
4/ make a point of putting stress in words and sentences. US folk tend to stress in different places (I think?). It helps with pronunciation a lot.
but to be honest, they probably wont know the difference anyway.

Most of my students at my hagwan speak just the way I like it...