Pronunciation seems to be very basic, but it is probably the most challenging factor in terms of accuracy in learning a foreign language. Adults who continue to make greater use of their first language tend to have stronger accents in the second langu...
Pronunciation seems to be very basic, but it is probably the most challenging factor in terms of accuracy in learning a foreign language. Adults who continue to make greater use of their first language tend to have stronger accents in the second language, and they have great difficulty in acquiring a native-like accent. Teachers need to make a special effort to design a developmental method for accuracy and make up a prescription for the promotion of learners' interests and more effective instruction.
The number of Chinese coming to Korea for academic purposes has been increasing significantly in recent times. Although some of them have learned basic Korean in China, they have difficulty learning Korean. They have been taught with several teaching methods based on theoretical aspects, not practical. It has resulted Chinese speakers' facing severe difficulties in learning Korean.
Each learner's characteristics should be considered in teaching and learning a foreign language. For example, according to the proficiency levels of Chinese speakers who are learning Korean, teaching methods and pace of learning should be different.
This study gives some consideration to those matters and outlines a goal to design appropriate learning methods for Chinese speakers.
In chapter two, I discuss how to predict phonological errors that Chinese speakers are apt to make in practicing major phonological phenomena, such as discussed in the following examples.
Teaching Korean phonology as a foreign language sets a goal to help learners listen, understand, and speak Korean that has a wide discrepancy between letters and sounds. This study includes the following cases resulted from the discrepancy between letters and sounds such as neutralization, consonant-clusters contraction, linking, elision of 'ㅎ', glottalization, aspiration, palatalization, (epenthesis). In this dissertation, we shall not concentrate on the cases in which letters and sounds are consistent, such as vowel harmony, semivocalization, vowel contraction, and vowel deletion, etc.
Chapter 3 looks at specific aspects of how Chinese speakers make phonological errors.
Although Chinese speakers' errors on pronunciation would be predicted as shown in Chapter 2, a survey was carried out to see their actual errors. It examined the aspects of phonological errors. The research was performed with ten Chinese speakers taking a Korean language course at The Center of International Exchange in Kyungnam University in order to apply for universities in Korea. They had learned Korean at the several language centers in China for anywhere between 2- 12 months. They have been taught Korean by me at one classroom although they were at different levels of proficiency, ranging from beginning to intermediate. Students were given a questionnaire and ten minutes to read it before the pronunciation instruction. Then, one by one, in a sound-proofed room, students were asked to talk about what they had read. I transcribed their speech and also recorded what they said. The aim of this research was to get to know how much the learners have improved, which sound they had the most difficulty in speaking, which method of instruction was the most effective, and which sound was the most challenging for the instructor to teach. The first test was carried out before they studied the phonological rules, and the second one after they took the phonological instruction according to the methods studied in chapter 2.
In chapter 4, I study the resulting errors seen in chapter 3, and how to minimize them.
The errors of pronunciation on phonological rules resulted from the fact that learners didn't know (1) the phonological rules at all, or (2) the exceptions to the rules. In addition, the fact that they learned many rules, but did not necessarily understand them all, may have contribute to their confusion. This can be seen from other nationalities as well as Chinese speakers. Two ways of pronunciation instruction are presented to solve this problem. Firstly, the frequency of phonological rules, typicality, exceptionality, reversing-application are introduced and secondly, the sequences of phonological rules are presented in consideration to difficulty.
In chapter 5, I summarize what has been discussed in this dissertation and come to a conclusion by thinking over which is the easiest part and which is the most difficult part in the light of the aspect of instruction, the result of correction, and the extent of errors.