Hangul and Teaching Pronunciation to Beginners

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

I have noted above that many pronunciation guides insist on “correcting” pronunciation, often focusing on errorsunnecessary or irrelevant to beginning users. There are excellent resources on spoken Korean such as by 배주채 (2003), but most materials arewritten in Korean designed as an introduction to Korean phonology, for KFL teachers or linguistics students. They also lack audio accompaniment. One very practical auxiliary material available is Choo and O’Grady (2003), which may be very useful if it can be used systematically in aclassroom setting, with the material integrated into a regular teaching plan.
To acquire native-like pronunciation of the target language, authentic input is a must and should precede or be simultaneously emphasized with speaking practice for absolute beginners. Studentswho have learned to discern and familiarize themselves with contrastive phonemes in Korean in turn will easily be able to internalize its phonological rules.
Recent emphasis on “integrated” skills teaching seems to brush aside teaching and drilling individual component skills. This approach seems to have sprung from the need to condense the teaching/learning time in public school situations (vs. extra curricular classes or language immersion). It is not clear that integrated approach works well especially for beginners. An intensive listening course or a strategically set aside regular class time for listening and pronunciation drills is required for concrete and fast progress.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본고에서는 한글과 한국어 기초 발음 교육에 대해 고찰해 본다. 제 1 장은 한글 교육 방법에 대해, 제 2장은 기초 발음 교육에 대해 썼다. 한글 교육은 특히 자음 소개 시에 훈민정음의 글자 창제 원리를 도용하면 손쉬우므로 자세히 다루지 않았다. 발음 교육은 한국어 교육 도입부부터 학습자들에게 어려운 부분이므로, 현존하는 교재들을 조사한 뒤, 각 교재의 실제 교육 현장에의 적용 적합성, 혹은 난점들을 2장 1절에서 지적하였다. 2장 2절에서는 현재 University of Washington에서 사용되고 있고, 타 교육 현장에서도 용이하게 사용할 수 있는 몇 가지 실용적인 교수 방법을 제시해 보았다. 제 3장 요약 뒤에 실례의 부록을 붙였다.