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      TeachingEnglish
      Helping students overcome pronunciation problems
      Submitted by rominachamula@h... on 16 September, 2009 - 17:13

      Hi, I'm Romina, an Argentinian teacher who is eagerly looking for tips and exercises for my sts to overcome pronunciation problems. This week I'm working with a group of adults who have problems uttering -vilar n - as in song in isolation and connected speech. I also realized that the issue persists when trying bilabials M ( as in man) and N (as in nine) I am aware of the fact that there's no -vilar n- or similar sound in the Spanish phonetic chart. This is one of the reasons why it's really hard for them to produce it.

      Any suggestion? they'll be welcome!

      ‹ Phonetics and phonology - any suggestions Suprasegmental aspects of phonetics/phonology first?! ›

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      neutralaccent's picture
      neutralaccent
      pronunciation problems
      Submitted on 24 September, 2009 - 16:21

      1)Mark at least words a day from a dictionary and memorize them and use dictionary keys to learn their pronunciation.
      2) Nowadays talking dictionaries are also available. I nvest in any one.
      3) Talk with your friends in the language you want to be fluent in, avoid all other languages. You will learn from your mistakes.
      4) Watch the movies in that language extensively and listen to songs in that language & try understanding the lyrics.

      Ref: http://www.neutralaccent.com

       

      jessica77's picture
      jessica77
      Overcoming pronunciation problems
      Submitted on 31 March, 2010 - 16:42

      I face pronunciation problems almost every day in the class with my students. I have Hispanic students who tend to pronounce "J" as "H" (like Jose as Hose), but more than that the mother tongue effect can actually be very hard to overcome. One of the best way to overcome accent problems is to be a good listener, it really helps. Practicing them outloud while you are alone. I do not believe in Neutral Accent concept. Depending on your mother tongue accent, my Neutral accent will be different from yours. Ex: British English calls scHedule while American English calls it sKedule. (notice the H and K), those two can never blend.

       

      abir_ahmed's picture
      abir_ahmed
      Good listener
      Submitted on 5 May, 2011 - 10:50

       It's realy awesome . I like it.

      edwardslate's picture
      edwardslate
      Good suggestions
      Submitted on 20 June, 2011 - 04:51

      Excellent advice, I'll try to follow them.

      Jonny G's picture
      Jonny G
      Pron problems
      Submitted on 14 September, 2011 - 04:35

       

      One thing which helps my students is showing them diagrams of how the consonant is made  (you can find these in 'Tree or Three', or 'Ship or Sheep' , or draw them yourself.  The diagrams really help them see what they should be doing with thier mouths.   After showing them the diagram, allow them time to practice themselves for 1-2 minutes.

      I like using minimal pairs a lot too.  You can practice listening skills with simple activities like jump the line (ss jump from left to right depending on whether the word you say starts with m or n, for example.  Or play bingo (make your own bingo cards online with lots of minimal pairs on them).

      After some recognition work and drills, you can write a short dialogue using the sounds and have them practice the dialogue whilst you go round correcting thier pron of the target consonant.  I usually do this and progress is slow, but my ss are generally getting much better at the basic sounds!