American English pronunciation errors made by speakers native to Korea

Common
American English
Pronunciation Errors

Vowel Errors

Korea

Pronunciation will be improved dramatically by correcting 3 or 4 critical Vowel errors.

Problem:

extra "eu" and "ec" sounds
(adding an additional syllable)

i.e.

"church" sounds like "churchy"

Long "o" vs. short "o"

i.e.

"novels" sounds like "nobels"

Short "a" vs. short "e"

i.e.

"fax" sounds like "pekseu"
(not only is " f " pronounced as "p", but short "a" vowel is turned into a short "e" vowel)

Short " i " vs. long "e"

i.e.

"city" sounds like "sheedy"
(combines two errors - short "s" is incorrectly pronounced as "sh" and the long vowel is incorrectly pronounced as a long "e")

Solution:
AAP Vowel Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Tongue Position
- Lip Position
- Jaw Position
- Tongue Tension
- Vowel Length
- Compound Vowels

Targeted Exercises

- Vowel Reductions
- Vowel Sounds
- Vowel Pairs
- Vowel Length Drills

Consonant Errors

Korea

Pronunciation will also be improved by correcting a few critical Consonant errors.

Problem:

Sounds mispronounced:

"b" vs. "p"

i.e.

"bees" - "peas"

" f " vs. "p"

i.e.

"feel" - "peel"

"b" vs. "v"

i.e.

"boat" - "vote"

"z" vs. "j"

i.e.

"pizza" - "peach-eu"

"tz" vs. "ts"

i.e.

"result" - "dessert"

Omitting "s"

i.e.

"she" - "he"

"s" vs. "sh"

i.e.

"sue" - "shoe"

" l " vs. "r"

i.e.

"rice" - "lice"

Solution:
AAP Consonant Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Placement
- Airflow
- Voicing

Targeted Exercises

- Consonant Sounds

24 different sounds

- L Drills

Blends
Sound combinations

- R Drills

Beginning
Middle
Ending

Intonation Errors

Korea

Using the correct stress and rhythm will immediately improve your ability to be understood.

Problem:

1 .

Pitch - monotone - lack of up and down pitch to create the "melody" of American English.

Voice volume - too quiet

Rhythm - lacking intonation

Syllable and word stress - lacking

Intonation patterns - incorrect

Solution:
AAP Intonation Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Stress
- Pitch
- Steps and Glides
- Duration

Targeted Exercises

- Intonation Patterns
- Compound Nouns
- Heteronyms
- Word Reductions
- Sentence Level Intonation
- Contrastive Intonation
- Response Drills
- Tag Questions