Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Blinky Bill]

I have recently used some information from an English Listening program for a number of classes, approx 5 classes, totalling 50 students.
On paper I wrote approx 100 pair words with a very similar pronunciation.
I read one of the words out to the students, and they marked the word that they thought I had spoken.
After looking at the results of this exercise, the following pair words were consistently marked wrong.

got/goat
fox/folks
put/putt
climb/crime
they/day
lugs/lungs
hot/hut
reach/rich
not/nut
robber/rubber
he's/his
light/right
lice/rice
pot/pout
breathe/breeze
cub/curve
5:15/5:50
17/70

My pronunciation was slow and precise, although I do not have an American accent. I have made my own analyse from this exercise, but I would like other input and ideas.

Thankyou

[denverdeath]

Pretty good analysis if you ask me.

Also try these ones:

John/Joan
Blood/Brood
Flood/Flute

Seems like they often have a problem with the "uh" sound even though they have it in their own language("��"). I also think it has something to do with the government's system of romanization, or whatever it's called. It's also a problem with the complexities of English phonetics, "exceptions to the rule," and the fact that they may not have been taught correctly to begin with.

[SuperHero]

You were doing a minimal pairs exercise and the trouble stems from one sound being absent from the Korean sound system. Though some native speakers will have trouble with some of them as well hence many times you will hear people asking for clarification regarding your example of 5:15 or 5:50

[ddeubel]

Hi,

I think a minimal pairs exercise like this or a rhyming selection exercise ( heat wheat great meet ) is a good way to see where student's problems lie.

The difficulty I have with your exercise is that the students are really being tested on word recognition - not pronounciation or sound recognition. This could be accomplished by using pictures instead of the list of words......really you are only finding out which words they know/recognize by sound. Also, the fifty fifty nature of the test , makes it difficult to really get verified results. Students MUST know all these words, they must be a very deep part of their second language vocabulary. If not, the test isn't very authentic / useful.

My few cents.

DD

[Blinky Bill]

Thankyou to those who posted a reply. Any feedback is appreciated. And I have put into place some of your suggestions for future lessons.