Pinpointing Pronunciation Errors

Short and long vowel sounds often sound the same      Explanation why this error occurs: That is because in Spanish there are five vowel sounds that correspond to five letters, that is, wherever you see the letter A it will sound the same. In English, this does not happen, because English is not a phonological language, which means that although in spelling there are only five letters to represent vowels, in phonetics there are around twenty vowel sounds. So in English when you see the letter A it is not always pronounced the same way. For example, in the word batter, the A sounds /æ/ but in the word barter, the A sounds /ɑ/.      In order to generate these sounds, many students overstretch all vowel sounds or merge it with the closest sound in Spanish, and confuse pairs of short and long English vowel sounds such as "boat" and "sheep" in both comprehension and speech. To fix the problem: There are different exercises that students can do to improve, such a...

  Vowel sound added to words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant    Explanation why this error occurs: Spanish speakers sometimes add an ‘e’ to the beginning of words starting with‘s’ and a consonant. As a result, you pronounce the words ‘street’ and ‘school’ as ‘estreet’ or ‘eschool’. This happens because words in Spanish do not normally begin with a consonant cluster – so sounds like sp, st, sk, sl, sm always have a vowel sound before. Exercises to help improve the pronunciation of ‘s’ or ‘st’ correctly: 1. Snake game    A good way to practice the pronunciation of the ‘st’ or the ‘s’ with some other consonants, is working in the letter ‘s’ like a snake; pronouncing it in a long way and then proceed with the rest of the word. For example:   ‘ssssstay’, ‘ssssstoke’ or ‘sssstorm. Instructions: Look at the pictures and find the word that corresponds in the box. Write on the line the word that represents the image. In pairs, pronounce every word correctly in an ...

The V and the B are pronounced the same      Explanation why this error occurs: In English, the /v/ is fricative, which means the teeth and lips must touch when you say it. The /b/ on the other hand, is plosive. This means both the lips touch together (imagine the motion you’d do when applying lipstick or blowing a kiss). Exercises to help improve the pronunciation of V and B correctly: 1. Repeating Minimal Pairs This exercise could be very useful for you because by practicing both pronunciations with minimal pairs, you will be able to distinguish the meaning of each word. Instructions: Practice saying both sets of words and check your pronunciation is different for each. Make sure that for the /v/ sound air passes between your teeth and lips with a vibration. In pairs, pronounce every word correctly. Then, by turns, say a sentence using each word, making sure to pronounce in the right way.   2. B-V pyramid Instructions: Using the worksheet Model the sounds...

Incorrect pronunciation of sound /m/ at the end of words      Explanation why this error occurs: In Spanish, we have the 'M' consonant sound but it never appears at the end of words; so, when it does in English, for example in the word 'Game', Spanish students often turn it into 'N'. Examples: The word ‘game’ is pronounced as ‘gain’ The word ‘seem’ is pronounced as ‘seen’ The word ‘foam’ is pronounced as ‘phone’   M turns to N at the end of words. Therefore, while it’s not at all difficult for Spanish speakers to pronounce the M alone, it can be quite challenging for them to pronounce it at the end of words. This is why when a word ends with M in English (some, ham, cream) Spanish speakers may substitute it with the closest sound available that does show up at the end of words in Spanish – N (or NG). This substitution usually happens subconsciously, and awareness is the number one factor in improving this pronunciation challenge. Exercises to help improve th...

    Learning a second language is an adventure that leads you to experience new ways of expressing what you think and what you feel. On this path, we can say that it is necessary to make errors in order to master the language in the best way. It is possible that we make some errors in the area of writing when using a grammatical structure different from the one of our mother tongue. Especially, we tend to make many errors in pronunciation; either because of the influence of our native language or because of the complexity of the language we are learning. However, if you stop to think about it, what would be the point of having teachers if students did not make mistakes when learning? The main purpose of teachers is to guide you, identify where you are failing and find ways to help you develop your skills, in this case speaking, which is the key to effective communication.     In this blog, we will be analyzing the most common errors in the pronunciation of ...

  Conclusions Cinthia Amador      To begin with, in my opinion, having an intelligible pronunciation should be one of the most important goals we should pursue as foreign language learners. Although, we have to be aware that perfecting this skill takes time and that along the way we are going to make some errors. These are part of the learning process, so they should not be taken as a failure but as an opportunity to get to know ourselves better and learn. Personally, I learned a lot about pronunciation by detecting the errors that Spanish speakers make. For instance, the influence of the L1 has a lot to do with the errors in pronunciation that we make. In addition, we are generally not used to thinking in another language and lack of practice or exposure to the target language causes us to make errors.     Definitely, this assignment helped me to learn many ways to identify pronunciation errors, for that reason, I have no problem identifying them. However,...

References ABA ENGLISH . (2015). Do you also make these mistakes in English? abaenglish.com. https://www.abaenglish.com/en/aba-english-masterclass/pronunciation-errors-in-english/ Anonymous. (September, 2015). All about long and short vowels sounds for preschoolers. Kutuki. https://kutuki.in/short-and-long-vowel-sounds-for-preschoolers/ Brenda. (11th November, 2020). 6 Pronunciation Mistakes Spanish Speakers Make in English (And How To Fix Them). oxfordhousebcn.com. https://oxfordhousebcn.com/en/6- pronunciation-mistakes-spanish-speakers-make-in-english-and-how-to-fix-them/ CARLA Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. (18th August, 2021). Overview of Error Analysis. carla.umn.ed. https://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/error_analysis.html English, W. (6th August, 2021). Pronunciation of S in English. Grammar.cl. https://www.grammar.cl/english/pronunciation-final-s.htm Gumbaridze, J. (2012). Error correction in EFL speaking classrooms....