pronunciation needs assessment: alex lee adrienne beck

ALEX’S PRONUNCIATION NEEDS 1

Pronunciation Needs Assessment: Alex Lee

Adrienne Beck

Azusa Pacific University

TESL 525: Teaching English Pronunciation

June 9th, 2013


Introduction/Background of the Learner

The subject of the following needs assessment is Alex Lee. He is a 32 year-old native

speaker of Korean. Alex began learning English in middle school in his hometown of Masan,

Korea, which is located on the East coast of S.Korea. His English instruction began during

Middle School and primarily focused on grammatical forms with additional instruction in

reading and writing. Alex describes pronunciation as being taught through listen and repeat drills

also known as the Audio lingual method. He explained that the majority of instruction was

placed on the use of stress, intonation and rhythm. Alex further stated that because not a lot of

time was given to the pronunciation of segmentals in class, he gave time outside of class to focus

on areas such as /r/ and /l/ and /b/ and /p/.

At the age of 25, Alex met his American wife, an English Teacher teaching on the island

of Jeju in South, Korea. They married two years later and moved to America where Alex began

studying for his GRE to enter Graduate school. Alex self-studied for his GRE for one year and

learned conversational English from his wife as well as through daily communication with

friends and family members. In 2008, Alex entered Graduate school at Texas A&M and

completed his M.E. in Structural Engineering two years later. Having lived in the U.S. for eight

years, Alex has increased both his command of BICS and CALP. Currently Alex uses English on

a daily basis working for an Engineering firm as a Structural Engineer. He had voiced during the

interview that while he feels the majority of his co-workers and peers can fully understand him,

he still feels he has great room for improvement especially on segmentals. While Alex still

retains various pronunciation and grammatical characteristics of other native Korean speakers, he

has overcome many the problem areas that pose difficulty for other native Korean speakers.


There are many pronunciation problems that may arise for Alex due to the radical differences

between English and Korean. According to Avery & Ehrlic, the following are common problem

areas for Koreans in regards to consonants:

1. /p/ vs. /f/ and /b/ vs. /v/

The sound /f/ and /v/ does not exist in Korean and so /p/ and /b/ may be substituted

respectively.

2. /s/ vs. /ʃ/

In Korean /s/ is pronounced as /ʃ/ before high and mid front vowels.

Seat and sheet may sound the like sheet.

3. /l/ vs. /r/

The /l/ is often substituted for the /r/ in initial position producing ‘light’ as ‘right’.

The /r/ or a /ɾ/ for /l/ between vowels, producing ‘firing’ or ‘fighting for ‘filing’.

4. /θ/ vs. /ð/

Korean speakers tend to substitute the aspirated /t/ for /θ/ and unaspirated /t/ for /ð/.

5. Korean has no voiced fricatives. Often Korean speakers will substitutes voiceless stops or

affricates for English voiced fricatives. The /z/ in ‘zoo’ may be substituted with the /ʤ/

sounds.

6. Korean has no voiced stops and often have difficulty in producing voiced and voiceless stops

in non-initial position. ‘lagging’ may sound like ‘lacking’ and ‘ribbing’ may sound like

‘ripping’.

7. Korean has no voiced affricates and so the /ʤ/ in ‘judge’ may sound like a final /g/ or /d/. In

affricate word endings, Korean speakers tend to produce and short vowel sound /i// as in

‘matchi’.


8. Korean speakers have difficulty with both initial and final consonant clusters. They often add

a short /u/ sound between consonants to break up the clusters (2006, p. 138-142).

In regards to vowels, Cho and Park noted that there are many more vowels in English

than there are in Korean and thus it is more challenging for Koreans to acquire English vowels

(2006, p.234). Cho and Park outlines the following common problem areas for Koreans in

regards to vowels:

1. Distinction and production between /ε/ vs. /æ/ in the front-low tongue position is not present in

Korean thus it is difficult to hear between ‘bet and ‘bat’.

2. The distinction between tense and lax vowels does not exist in Korean and thus learners may

have difficulty distinguishing between /i/ vs. /ɪ/ as in ‘beat’ vs. ‘bit’ and /uw/ vs. /ʊ/ as in

‘pool’ vs. ‘pull’.

3. The production of English diphthongs as in /aw/ ‘sound’ tend to be produced as two

independent syllables.

4. Substitution of /ɔ/ for /ow/ as in ‘bought’ for ‘boat’ because there is no mid back vowel in

Korean (2006, p.235-236).

� At the suprasegmental level, stress (pitch/accent) play a small role in relation to lexical

meaning in Korean. In addition, Korean does not use length distinction of vowels and therefore

Koreans tend to treat stress patterns and vowel length as something additional and not something

that is crucial for meaning. This may greatly hinder Koreans communicability in speaking

English (Cho & Park, 2006, p.239).

Methods

Alex participated in four separate listening and speaking activities to ensure that his

production and recognition of English sounds were represented properly: a diagnostic test


(Appendix A) in which he listened to and marked the sounds he heard at both the segmental and

suprasegmental levels, which is agreement with Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin’s belief that

a diagnostic test must involve the evaluation of a students consonant-vowel distinction,

recognition of word stress, prominence and intonation and notice reduced speech (2010, pg. 309-

312), a free speech on a topic selected from five choices (Appendix B) which is consistent with

Celce-Murcia’s et al. view that free speech samples allow the student focus more on meaning

rather than form and that learners are more apt to provide a fluent speech on a topic selected

from a range of choices (2010, p.314), a reading of a diagnostic passage (Appendix C) to assess

those pronunciation features that might not have been present in the free speech (Celce-Murcia et

al., 2010, p.313), and an interview (Appendix D) which helped to provide additional information

regarding the speakers ability to perceive and process natural spoken English (Celce-Murcia et

al., 2010, p.312).

Some additional precautions I took was ensuring that Alex had time to look over the

diagnostic questions before hand. As Celce-Murcia et al. (2010) stated “the more familiar

learners are with the format of a test, the greater the chance that their performance will reflect

their true competence in that area” p.308). In addition, when giving the diagnostic passage, I

read the passage to Alex and gave him time to practice until he felt comfortable with it before

recording in keeping with Celce-Murcia’s et al, (2010) assertion that “practicing a diagnostic

passage in advance allows learner to avoid some of the unnatural reading features that might

otherwise occur” (p.313). I video recorded both the reading of the diagnostic passage, interview

and free speech topic to note the position and movement of Alex’s vocal organs afterward.

Pronunciation Competence


Segmentals Alex’s overall listening and production of pronunciation is representative of

his level (advanced). His listening discrimination may be perceived to be better than an average

Korean learner of English. When asked to distinguish between 10 minimal pair sentences

containing both vowels and consonants, he successfully differentiated 9 of them correctly, many

of which included sentences that contained stereotypical problematic areas for Korean learners

such as: /l/ vs. /r/, /b/ vs. /v/, /f/ vs. /p/. The only pair he had difficulty with was differentiating

between travel and traveled. The past tense -ed of verbs have been shown to cause difficulty in

both production and listening for Korean speakers as Alex demonstrated in his interview in such

words as interested, decided, and progressed.

In Analyzing Alex’s free speech (Appendix B) and the diagnostic reading (Appendix C),

I found several segmental problems in his pronunciation that are typical of Korean learners of

English, the first and most frequent being the substitution of /p/ for /f/, and /b/ for /v/. The

majority of these errors took place in the initial placement of words. These errors may be due to

the absence of fricatives /f/ and /v/ in the Korean language and the tendency to replace them with

affricates or stops (Cho & Park, 2006, p.238). Another frequent pronunciation challenge of

Alex’s was the pronunciation of /l/ for which he often pronounced as an /r/ in such words as

learners and language. Again, the majority of his errors in substituting the /r/ for /l/ took place

in the initial word placement. As Celce-Murcia et al. (2010) found “student populations that

includes speakers of Asian languages, need reinforcement of the distinction between /r/ and /l/ “

(p.67).

Other challenging areas noted were Alex’s tendency to pronounce /d/ in the place of /ð/

as observed in words this as dis and with as wid. Again this substitution of /d/ for /ð/ is the result

of the fact that the fricative /ð/ does not exist in Korean and is often replaced by the stop /d/ (Cho


& Park, 2006, p.238). Alex had a tendency to add and extra vowel sound such as /ʊ/ or /iy/ onto

the end of words that ended in a consonant sound such as church, language and age. As

Hellmen (2009) states, “Korean phonotactical rules allow for words to end only in vowels or a

select few consonants and as a result, when speaking English, Korean learners of English have a

tendency to add a vowel to an English word that ends in a consonant that could not occur at the

end of a Korean word” (Phonological differences, para 2). Alex also replaced the vowel sound

/ʊ/ with /ow/ as in words childhood and shoot. This is not a typical error of Korean learners.

Korean learners typically substitute /uw/ for /ʊ/.

Suprasegmentals Alex’s attention to stress and intonation followed Cho and Park’s

(2006) assertion that “Koreans tend to treat the stress patterns and vowel length distinction in

English as something additional” (p.239)., While Alex’s reading of the diagnostic passage and

production in free speech is completely intelligible, he does lack both production of syllable

stress as well as difficulty in discerning between syllable stress (as highlighted in red in his

listening diagnostic test under ‘word stress). The tendency to not give stress to syllables, is the

result of the fact that Korean is a syllable-timed language in which syllables are of roughly equal

length and very little attention is given to vowel reduction (Han et al., 2011, pg.538). In addition,

Alex showed difficulty in hearing stressed content words in the diagnostic listening test (as

highlighted in red in ‘part three - word stress’) and also did not use much prominence in his free

speech topic. For Koreans, who speak languages that tend not to use prominence to highlight or

place focus on an element, a teacher must explain and provide practice for this function (Celce et

al, 2010, p.226)

Alex’s sensitivity to pitch; when asked whether the final intonation of a sentence rose or

fell, he answered 100 % correctly. He also demonstrated correct use of both rising and falling


intonation in differentiating between questions and statements in his reading of the diagnostic

passage as well as his free speech topic. However, in reading statements, his intonation patterns

combined with his use of prominence, or lack there of, can tend to lack meaning. Finally, Alex

showed no difficulties in both hearing and producing reduced speech which may be expected for

a learner such as he who has lived in America for over 8 years and has had enough practice in

listening and hearing these features.

Recommendations

Given the above analysis of Alex’s segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation, it is

recommended that the following be addressed in order of importance. First, the issue of syllable

stress and prominence and second, /l/ vs. /r/, /b/ vs. /p/ and /f/ vs. /p/ confusion. Because Alex

has voiced concern over the occasional inability of co-workers and friends to understand errors

made to individual segments, combined with the observations made from free speech regarding

errors in stress and prominence, equal instruction would be given to both segmental and

suprasegmental features.

I would begin by pointing out to Alex that in English, we stress syllables with pitch,

length and volume and begin to have him practice pronouncing the stress in various words by

stressing the syllable capitalized or underlined. I would be sure to note to Alex that stressed

syllables are different than unstressed syllables (either longer or louder and/or higher in pitch)

and could demonstrate this with the use of rubber bands (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.199). Since

Alex already has prior knowledge regarding word stress rules and spelling patterns, I would have

him predict where he might hear stress before having him listen to a list of words. Once he is

able to hear the stressed element he can either confirm his prediction or learn from his mistake.


Controlled or guided practice could be done by using a list of place names and focus on stressing

each place name correctly in a question an answer activity in which Alex responds about his

home country or city (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.204).

Once Alex has a better understanding of stressed syllables, I would raise his awareness

on the function of prominence by writing and pronouncing, ‘I’m LIstening’, I’M listening and I

Am listening! and then have him choose from the three sentences provided, to answer the

following questions, ‘What are you doing?’, Who’s listening? and ‘Why aren’t you listening?’

(Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.227). Next, I would provide a dialogue in which he was asked to

listen and then choose the prominent element from each thought group. A more controlled or

guided communicative task could include him marking dialogues for prominence that illustrate

how native speaker can shift register to express varying degrees of formality and then have the

student practice these dialogues (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.228)

In helping students to both distinguish between and produce the sounds of /l/ vs. /r/, /b/

vs. /p/ and /f/ vs. /p/, I would be beneficial to present and comparative analysis of phonological

and phonetic differences between Korean and English (Cho & Park, 2006, p.244). Further, a

teacher should point out where these sounds are made by presenting diagrams that show tongue

and mouth positions, for example with l, the sound is made with the tip of the tongue touch the

ridge while the /r/ sounds is made with the tip of the touching no part of the roof of the mouth

(Avery & Ehrlic, 1992, p.140). Exercises such as minimal pairs in which the Alex could place

his tongue on the alveolar ridge, and pronounce led and then move to a relaxed jaw and say “uh”

rolling his tongue first up and back and then unrolling int to say red (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010,

p.67). Listening discrimination practice could be done on the distinction between these

phonemes, however listening diagnostic revealed that Alex can hear the distinction between


phonemes better than he can produce them. Implementing more controlled, guided practice and

communicative tasks such as the use of dialogues, information gaps, role plays and stories that

provide contrast between the phonemes of /l/ vs. /r/, /b/ vs/ /p/, and /f/ vs. /p/, would help Alex to

gain control over a feature and then allow him to extend this to use it in a more communicative

exchange (Celce-Murcia et al., 2010, p.45).

Conclusion

Given the amount of time Alex has spent in America and the fact that he uses English on

a daily basis both inside and outside of his home, he has overcome many of the pronunciation

errors stereotyped as belonging to Koreans. In order to advance on those phoneme errors as

outlined above and improve upon the use of syllable stress and prominence, Alex would need

daily dedication and practice. Since Alex has already mastered other English sounds which have

proved difficult for other Korean speakers, it is predicted that with time, and dedication spent on

the recommended areas above, Alex will prove to be successful in working towards his goal of

extremely intelligible pronunciation.


References

Avery & Ehrlic (1992). Teaching American English Pronunciation: A textbook and reference

Manual on Teaching the Pronunciation of North American English, Written Specifically

for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy, 3rd

ed. New York: Pearson Education.

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course

book and reference guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cho, J & Park, H.K (2006) A Comparative Analysis of Korean-English Phonological Structures

and Processes for Pronunciation Pedagogy in Interpretation Training. Translators’

Journal, 51, 222-246.


Han, J., Hwang, J. & Choi, T (2011). The acquisition of phonetic details: Evidence from the

production of English reduced vowels by Korean learners. Second Language Research, 27, 535-

557.

Hellman, T (2009, Jan 9). The Korean Learner of English: English Korean Cross-Linguistic

Challenges. Retrieved from http://koreanalyst.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/the-korean-

learner-of-english-english-korean-cross-linguistic-challenges/

Lane, L. (2005). Focus on Pronunciation 2. NY: Pearson Education.

Park, M.S. (1997). Communication styles in two different cultures: Korean and American. Seoul:

Han Shin Publishing.

Power, T. (2012). English language learning and teaching. Retrieved from

http://www.tedpower.co.uk/l1korean.html


Appendix A: Diagnostic Test

Part One - Minimal Pair Sentences: Vowels and Consonants (Words adapted from: http://www.tedpower.co.uk/l1korean.html and format adapted from Stephanie Sanford, Azusa Pacific University)

Listen and Circle the word that you hear.

1. a. They travel all year round.

b. They traveled all year round.

2. a. I really don’t like lice.

b. I really don’t like rice.

3.a. Oh that really stings!

b. Oh that really stinks!

4. a. I hope to save face.

b. I hope to save faith.

5. a. That is such a good prize.

b. That is such a good price.

6. a. I like the look of a big whale.


b. I like the look of a big veil.

7. a. I don’t like the color of the board.

b. I don’t like the color of the bird.

8.a. The form fell in the water.

b. The foam fell in the water.

9. a. That is not a spot.

b. That is not a sport.

10. a. I have to find a big enough pot.

b. I have to find a big enough port.

Part Two: Word Stress

Listen to each word and mark a line under the stressed syllable.

1. Office

2. Believe

3. psychology

4. Chinese

5. duplicate

6. fifty

7. eighteen

8. realize

9. edit

10. invite

Part Three - Word Stress - (Lane, 2005, p.152)

Listen to the dialogue. In each sentence, underline the words that are emphasized more than others.


Max: This apartment is too small.

Lucy: It isn’t. It’s fine.

Max: No. It’s too small.

Lucy. It isn’t.

Max: It is.

Lucy: It’s the best we can do for now.

Max: I still say it’s too small.

Lucy: It doesn’t matter what you say.

Part Four - Reduced Speech (Celce-Murcia, 2010, p.313)

One or more of the words are missing in the blank. Listen to the two speakers and write in missing words.

A. Where _________________ go?

B: I ___________________. I haven’t seen _________________.

A: Well, where __________________ think _______________went?

B: If I ______________ tell you I would, but I can’t!

Part Five - Thought Groups (Lane, 2005, pg. 156 - 157).

Listen to the following sentences and mark the thought groups (/) that you hear.

1. a. Marc: Today at nine we’re going to meet Jose.

b. Maria: Iv’e already met Jose.

2. a. Marc: Today at nine / we’re going to meet, Jose.

b. Jose: Sorry. I can’t meet at nine.

3. a. Marc: I think you know Milan.

b. Alica: Yes, I know Milian.


4. a. Marc: I think you know Milan.

c. Yes, I’ve known for a long time.

Part Six - Rising and Falling Intonation (adapted from Celce-Murcia, 2010, pg. 310-311).

Listen to the following utterances. Write an arrow facing up ↗ if you think the intonation rises and an arrow facing down ↘ if you think that intonation falls at the end of the sentence.

1. You are hungry

2. The computer doesn’t work

3. Adrienne and Alex just had a baby girl

4. I haven’t heard from her. Is she ok?

5. Look at that happy face. You got the job, didn’t you?

Evaluators Script:

Read each sentence twice. 1. They travel all year round 2. I really don’t like lice. 3. Oh that really stinks! 4. I hope to save faith. 5. That is such a good prize. 6. I like the look of a big whale. 7. I don’t like the color of the bird. 8. The foam fell in the water. 9. That is not a spot. 10. I have to find a big enough port.

Read each word twice 1. Office 2. Believe 3. psychology 4. Chinese 5. duplicate


6. fifty 7. eightneen 8. realize 9. edit 10. invite Read the dialogue twice. Max: This apartment is too small. Lucy: It isn’t. It’s fine. Max: No. It’s too small. Lucy. It isn’t. Max: It is. Lucy: It’s the best we can do for now. Max: I still say it’s too small. Lucy: it doesn’t matter what you say. Read the dialogue twice. A: Where did he go? B: I don’t know. I haven’t seen him. A: Well, where do you think he went? B: If I could tell you I would, but I can’t! Read each sentence twice. 1. a. Marc: Today at nine we’re going to meet Jose. b. Maria: Iv’e already met Jose. 2. a. Marc: Today at nine we’re going to meet, Jose.

b. Jose: Sorry. I can’t meet at nine. 3. a. Marc: I think you know Milan.

b. Alica: Yes, I know Milian. a. Marc: I think you know Milan. b. Yes, I’ve known for a long time. Read each sentence twice.

1. You are hungry? ↗ 2. The computer doesn’t work. ↘ 3. Adrienne and Alex just had a baby girl. ↘ 4. I haven’t heard from her. Is she ok? ↗ 5. Look at that happy face. You got the job, didn’t you? ↘ ⤫


Appendix B: Transcript of free speech Topic

The Student is asked to choose one of the following topics to speak freely on for five minutes.

• Your hometown

• A favorite childhood memory

• An embarrassing moment

• A favorite vacation

• Your best friend

(5 minute transcription on a favorite childhood memory)

I would like to share one of my favorite childhood memories. It was when I was fifth grade and I was a vice president at that time one time the famous broadcasting system came down to our school and shoot some documentary and I was vice president so I had to be in that film so we were filming about a research about bat behavior so we were looking for umm we visited some caves to find bats and them um.....it was um ...my favorite memory because it was pretty exciting and I was a rural boy so It was interesting and I was amazed on how to make a film and lots of people contributed to make that film. That’s why it was my favorite memory at that time but also I could be my embarrassing moment too. I was young and I was a shy boy so I at that time when I was filming I need to pee but there are tons of people so I don’t even want to show my back side when I am peeing so I tried to find the spot no one could see me but before I get there I couldn’t hold anymore so my pants were soaked but there was some stream around the spot I was trying to pee so I washed my pants around the spot I peed and then I came back and one guys asked me “oh did you pee on your pants” and denied really aggressively denied and then we were driving in the van and It was embarrassing but no-one talked about it I think they were trying to protect me. Others had a pure mind it was pretty embarrassing but.......it was three days shooting so it was exciting and I had to memorize some script and I met other famous kids...celebrity kids. And also we had some some type of drama in that film as well it was originally documentary but kids are watching it so they put some kind of dramatic input so my co partner, youngee kim she was also vice president so we were in that film together. It was nice to be a part of that film. Actually we didn’t care about bats, we were actually scared of bats. We swung sticks in the


cave cause we were scared and one bat died because of us. Well what can I say it’s not bright memory but I can still remember it from when I was kid so its very memorable.

Sample IPA transcription from Alex’s free speech with problem areas highlighted.

I would like to share one of my favorite childhood memories. It was when I was fifth grade

aɪ əd laɪk tə ʃer wən əv maɪ peɪbrət tʃaɪldˌhowd memriz. ɪt wəz wen aɪ wəz pɪs greɪd and I was a vice president at that time one time the famous broadcasting system came ənd aɪ wəz ə baɪs prezədənt ət ðæt aɪm wən taɪm ðə feɪməs brɔdˌkæstɪŋ ɪstəm keɪm down to our school and shoot some documentary and I was vice president so I had to

dæʊn tə ɑr skul ənd ʃowt səm dɑcyuwmɛntæry ənd aɪ wəz baɪs frezədənt soʊ aɪ hæd tə be in that film so we were filming about a research about bat behavior so we were bi ɪn ðæt pɪlm soʊ wi wər pɪlmɪŋ əbæʊt ə rɪsərtʃi əbæʊt bæd bɪheɪvjər soʊ wi wər looking for umm we visited some caves to find bats.

[umm] wi bɪzətɪd səm keɪvz tə faɪnd bæds


Appendix C: Diagnostic Passage (Celce-Murcia, 2010, pg. 481).

Is English your native language? If not, your foreign accent may show people that you

come from another country. Why is it difficult to speak a foreign language without an accent?

There are a couple of answers to this question. First, age is an important factor in learning to

pronounce. We know that young children can learn a second language with perfect

pronunciation. We also know that older learners usually have an accent, though some older

individuals also have learned to speak without an accent.

Another factor that influences your pronunciation is your first language. English

speakers can, for example, recognize people from France by their French accents. They can also

identify Spanish or Arabic speakers over the telephone, just by listening carefully to them. Does

this mean that accents can’t be changed? Not at all! But you can’t change your pronunciation

without a lot of hard work. In the end, improving appears to be a combination of three things:

concentrated hard work, a good ear, and a strong ambition to sound like a native speaker.

You also need accurate information about English sounds, effective strategies for

practice, lots of exposure to spoken English, and patience. Will you make progress, or will you

give up? Only time will tell, I’m afraid. But it’s your decision. You can improve! Good luck,

and don’t forget to work hard.

IPA transcription of diagnostic passage with problem areas highlighted

Is English your native language? If not, your foreign accent may show people that you

ɪz ɪŋglɪʃ jər neɪtɪv ræŋgwɪdʒʊ? ɪf nɔt, jər fɔrən æksent meɪ /ʃoʊ/ pipəl /ðæt/ ju


come from another country. Why is it difficult to speak a foreign language without an accent?

kəm frəm ənəðər kəntri. waɪ ɪz ɪt dɪfɪkəlt tə spik ə pɔrən ˈæŋgwɪʒ wɪðæʊt ən ækˌsentʊ?

There are a couple of answers to this question. First, age is an important factor in learning to

ðer ɑr ə kuwpəl əb ænsərz tə dɪs kwestʃən. fərst, eɪdʒʊ ɪz ən ɪmpɔrtənt pæktər ɪn rərnɪŋ tə

pronounce. We know that young children can learn a second language with perfect

prənæʊns. wi noʊ ðæt dʒlldrɛn kən lərn ə sekənd læŋgwɪdʒ wɪd pərfɪkt pronunciation. We also know that older learners usually have an accent, though some older

prəˌnənsiˈeɪʃən. wi ɔlsoʊ noʊ ðæt owder rərnərz juʒəwəli hæv ən ækˌsent, doʊ səm


Appendix D: Transcription of Interview

NS: And why did you decide to come to the U.S.?

Alex: I met my current wife while I was in South Korea and she had to live because of her

contract and I decided to um continue our relationship so I we decided to move together to the

U.S.A.

NS: What was one of the hardest things to adapt to when you first came to the U.S?

Alex : I think it was food cause around area I live in and ah I couldn’t get um any Korean food

so um I thought American foods are very oily compared to our ah Korean food so it was very

hard to adapt in in in the beginning.

NS: What do you miss most about your home country?

Alex: Of course I miss my family but I fortunately had chance to meet my family once a year,

so um the secondly what I miss ah about Korea is night life cause I I’m pretty bored at night in

this country but in South Korea there are many things to do at night with friends or family.

That’s what I really miss about.

NS: Do you feel your language abilities have grown since you first came here?

Alex: Other people says nah other people say my language ability was uh progressed

but in my expectation I’m still ah I’m I’m still not __ good as what I ah expected so

NS: Do you find American’s well informed about your country?

Alex: Not actually, I think it depends on um the American people who travel ah more often or

who are interested in other cultures cause sometimes I have a question like are you from North

Korea I think that’s pretty ah obvious thing I thought but actually it wasn’t cause North Korean

cannot travel around world maybe you can see Kim Jungun or Kim. I think that is the only

North Korean who travels.


NS: How long do you plan on staying in the U.S and what do you hope to accomplish while you

are here?

Alex: I think I think we are staying here as long as my wife wants cause I’m fine with living

anywhere so yeah that’s what that’s my first answer ah first answer for first question and now I

started my career as a structural engineer and I try to ah work with other American guys without

any kind of miscommunication or ahh any kind of disability cause sometimes I when I speak I

feel like I am kind some of handicap person so that make me angry but I think it is time

consuming problem so I believe I will get better when ahh after working here three or four years

later.

pronunciation needs assessment: alex lee adrienne beck

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