Accreditation TESOL Online

Problems for learners in KoreaKoreans are highly disciplined with regards to their education and often times are strict and very serious about it. This in turn results in students being quite diligent with their work, but often times burn out rates are higher leading to loss of motivation and interest in learning. Despite this, because education is taken so seriously, children from Korea begin learning english as a second language early on in their primary years. The rate of language acquisition is much higher and easier for young learners, but common difficulties students have with learning english exist such as “alphabet related difficulties, grammar and structure, loan word confusion and [a] lack of exposure to actual english communication” (Godfrey). Because the Korean language does not use the Roman alphabet, the first biggest difficulty a Korean learner has is learning a whole new set of alphabets. Learning a new alphabet is not exactly that extreme, but problems arise in the pronunciation of the alphabet sounds. The sound of many english letters does not exist in the Korean alphabet such as the sound of “F, V, Z, [TH, and] R” (Godfrey). Due to this, Korean learners have difficulties in distinguishing these sounds and in turn producing them correctly as well. Because english is influenced by so many different languages (i.e. french, Latin, italian), english has many strange spellings such as the silent ‘g’ in ‘eight’ and ‘dough’ and this poses yet another difficulty for the Korean learner. Another typical sound problem Korean learners face is the use of stress and rhythm in the english language. english is a “stress-timed language [whereas] Korean is a syllable-timed language” (qtd in Cho). Because Korean is not a stress-timed language, it has no rhythm and does not use stress for words. Words are given equal emphasis and “the same interval is maintained between syllables” (Cho). Even though intonation exists in the Korean language, words are not emphasized and students have difficulties becoming familiar with the rhythm of the english language. Teachers will often times lack the confidence to teach stress and rhythm since most lack the proper training and skills to teach it as well. Another huge difficulty lies in the structure of sentences. Korean grammar uses a “SOV (Subject-Object-Verb)” (Godfrey) structure in their sentences, but in english this is almost completely flipped around to SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). Due to this complete rearrangement of the sentence structure, students often times struggle with the syntax of english. Because they are so use to the SOV structure, students will mistakenly write english sentences in that structure resulting in sentences that often finish with a verb (Godfrey). Another grammar difficulty students often have is the use of articles since such grammar functions do not exist at all in the Korean language (Shoebottom). Thirdly, the use of loan words is also a problem due to the inaccurate use of them. Because loan words are actual english words, students will have been exposed to english even at this minimal level; however, because these loan words are misused (i.e. eye shopping vs. window shopping), students have a hard time breaking the habit of using them (Godfrey). Lastly, the most posing stumbling block for Korean learners is the lack of exposure to english itself. This leads to a hindrance in their ability to readily practice and apply the lessons learned in their classroom or academies. For most students, contact with actual native speakers is slim since their school teachers and academy instructors will often times use Korean to teach. For this reason, it is rather hard for students to practice the use of english in real life situations. Despite these common problems and more, students who are diligent and motivated in their learning and practicing the use of english will be able to overcome these issues. Thus it is important for the TEFL teacher to be just as diligent in providing lessons that are motivating, lively, and encouraging for their students. (Note: Works Cited at the bottom of the document) Works Cited Cho, Byung-Eun. “Issues Concerning Korean Learners of english: english Education in Korea and Some Common Difficulties of Korean Students.” Oxford Brookes University. 11 Jan. 2012 Godfrey, Darian. Problems for Learners in Specific Countries. International TEFL and TESOL Training. 11 Jan. 2012 Shoebottom, Paul. “The Differences Between english and Korean.” A Guide to Learning english. 11 Jan. 2012