Colleges Internet TESOL

Problems for Learners inNative japanese speaking students learning to speak english face a plethora of unique difficulties concerning both english grammar and pronunciation. I would like to discuss in brief detail some of the problems japanese students have with english vowels and consonant sounds. I would also like to discuss some of the difficulties japanese students face as a result of the extremely different grammatical structures between their native language and the english language. To begin with, the japanese sound system is much simpler than the english sound system for a few reasons. They have a smaller amount of consonant sounds and a significantly smaller amount of vowel sounds. japanese language has only five basic vowel sounds; ah as in father, i as in need, o as in boat, u as in rue, and e as in ever. Therefore, japanese students have a considerable amount of difficulty with variations of the basic vowel sounds and tend to stick strictly to the basic five when pronouncing english words that call for vowel sounds like the sound “uh.” japanese students also have trouble producing certain consonant sounds that do not exist in the japanese language. For example, the v sound in english has no equivalent in the japanese language and is often pronounced by japanese students as a b sound instead. However, the most difficult consonant sound for japanese students to produce is the L sound, which often comes out as an R when japanese students speak english. japanese language has the b sound, which is somewhat close to the english v, but japanese language has no L sound whatsoever. Numerous tongue twisters and vocal drills have to be performed to rectify these pronunciation issues. In addition, the japanese grammatical system is quite different from the english one because of the japanese use of particles, word order, plurals, etc. First of all, japanese language is a Subject Object Verb language in, which the verb must also come at the end of the sentence. When japanese students are initially learning english the word order is quite challenging for them because in english the verb is placed in different areas depending upon the object of the verb or subject of the sentence. Another common problem is the expression of plurals in english because in japanese language a word does not change to make a plural form. Therefore, japanese students have a very difficult time remembering to add an “s” on the end of plural words in english. However, the largest difficulty for japanese students is the difference in particles between english and japanese languages. In japanese language particles are used constantly to mark object, subject, possession, direction, duration, comparison, as well as serving the function of the english “the,” “and,” “but,” “a,” and so forth. So when japanese students are learning english they often leave out words like “the” and “a/an” because they are confused about the translation of japanese particles. There are a plethora of other problems attached to the particle issue like the “ ‘s” issue when marking possession in english, which in japanese is marked with the sound “no” in front of the item being possessed. In conclusion, japanese speaking students who are learning english face a plethora of unique difficulties because of the difference between their native sound system and english as well as the distinctly different grammatical structures. japanese students face much more difficultly than some other foreign students because of the sounds that don’t exist in japanese language, but may exist in other foreign languages like french or German. Also like many other Asian languages the word order is quite different from several other Western languages so japanese students have a particularly difficult time expressing english grammar correctly in terms of word order. japanese students have to perform extra pronunciation drills with certain vowel and consonant sounds and take extra care to adhere to the english rules for word order.