Cost Accelerated TESOL

Problems for Learners in South KoreaThere are several main problems for english learners in Korea these are learning a new language, grammatical and sentence structure differences, word confusions, variety of english levels in a classroom, and lack of exposure to english. The first difficulty an english learner has to deal with is learning a new language. The english alphabet phonetic sounds have several sounds that do not exist in the Korean alphabet like ‘f’, ‘v’, ‘r’, ‘z’, and ‘l’. Many students have difficulties hearing these sounds or pronouncing them. While teaching in a classroom, I encounter these words. I have to overemphasis those letters, so that they are able to hear the differences. Students have to learn how to hear and pronounce these words, which is difficult when they had no encounter with english. Their ears, lips, and tongue are foreign to these letters. The second difficulty students have to deal with is the english grammar and sentence structure. Korean basic pattern of sentence structure is subject-object-verb. However, english basic pattern is subject-verb-object sentence structure. This causes confusion for students when it comes to writing or speaking. It takes them a while to reorganize before speaking because they have to change the structure to translate what the question or conversation is about. For an example, in Korean, ‘?? ??? ??’ would translate in english to ‘I school like’. So, for most students they have to translate Korean to english, but then think about the sentence structure before speaking. It takes more thinking processing time. When I was learning Korean for the first time, I had trouble with this area as well. I would be translating english to Korean in an english sentence structure which made the sentence awkward. The third difficulty is word confusions because in Korea, there are many english words for Korean objects or situation, but they are the wrong word. For an example, ‘tire punk’ which means a tire puncture, ‘accel’ means accelerate/accelerator, ‘AS’ means after service, ‘bond’ means super glue, ‘one-piece’ means a dress, etc. These words are english, but they are not correctly used or commonly used these ways. So, many students get confused or frustrated when they thought these words were correct english. My Korean friends were surprised when I didn’t know these words or I asked them what they meant. He/she thought these words were english words. The fourth difficulty is the variety of english levels in a classroom. Some students learn english from an english academy which puts them in an advantage. Their english level is usually a lot higher than the other students in the class. english taught in a class is aimed for beginner learners. So, there are students that are unable to say their alphabets and students who can speak/write in complete sentences in one class. This is a difficult for a teacher to plan their lesson that fits all levels. The teacher needs to plan activities and games that are suitable. The last difficulty is the lack of exposure of english. Students learn english in class, but they don’t’ use or hear english outside of class. Students are unable to practice what they have learned and that causes students to not find importance in learning english unless it’s for school grade, college entrance exam, or job applications. As an english learner, there are many difficulties in learning a new language, but there are rewards as well. Since, english is becoming more globalized and more people are speaking in english as a common language. It would be easier to communicate with others due to english. Byung-Eun Cho-Issues Concerning Korean Learners of english: english Education in Korea and Some Common Difficulties of Korean Students (2) Rebecca S. Merkin-Cross-cultural communication patters-Korean and American Communication (1)