Friday, May 9, 2008

Potential Pronunciation Problems for ESOL Students (Part 2)

In my last post, I shared potential pronunciation problems for students learning to acquire the sounds of the English alphabet. But what about the other sounds of the English language? This post attempts to serve as "Part 2" to the last post to explain potential pronunciation problems for the remaining of the 42 sounds of the English language.

MURMUR DIPHTHONGS

/ar/ (as in star)
Because this sound does not exist in most languages, this sound may be difficult to produce. Remind students to curl the tip of their tongue after making the short o sound.

/or/ (as in storm)
Because this sound does not exist in most languages, this sound may be difficult to produce. Remind students to curl the tip of their tongue after making the long o sound.

/er/ (as in her, first, and turn)
Because this sound does not exist in most languages, this sound may be difficult to produce. When /er/ is at the end of a word, students often substitute short o or short u for /er/ (i.e under--undah, sooner--soonah).

DIGRAPHS

/ch/ (as in chair)
The sound /ch/ is a combination of the sounds t and sh. Sometimes students confuse the sound /ch/ with /sh/ (i.e. chair--share; which--wish). When producing the /ch/ sound, the tongue should be in the same place as when making the /t/ sound.

/sh/ (as in share)
Sometimes the /sh/ sound is confused with the sounds /ch/ and /s/ (i.e. shoe--chew; she--see). It might be helpful to round the lips when producing the /sh/ sound.

/wh/
The sound /wh/ is a sound that the English language is losing. Often times the /wh/ sound is produced the same as /w/ (i.e. whine--wine).

/th/, voiced (as in the)
The sound /th/ does not exist in most languages. Because of its unfamiliar sound, students may substitute the /th/ (voiced) sound with more familiar sounds, such as /d/, /z/, or /j/ (i.e. they--day; then--zen; those--Joe’s). Students should concentrate on putting their tongue between their teeth and keeping the air stream continuous. Also, they should vibrate their vocal cords, or /th/ (voiced) will sound like /th/ (voiceless).

/th/, voiceless (as in think)
The sound /th/ does not exist in most languages. Because of its unfamiliar sound, students may substitute the /th/ (voiceless) sound with more familiar sounds, such as /s/, /sh/, /f/, or /t/ (i.e. thank--sank; thin--shin; Ruth--roof; path--pat). Students should concentrate on putting their tongue between their teeth and keeping the air stream continuous.

SPECIAL VOWEL SOUNDS

/au/ and /aw/ (as in Paul, saw)
Confusing English spelling patterns and the pronunciation of different dialects may cause difficulty in correctly producing this sound.

/ou/ and /ow/ (as in out, how)
The sounds /ou/ and /ow/ are a combination of two vowel sounds. Students may produce the sound of short o if they forget to glide from a wide-open mouth position to a closed one (i.e. pound--pond).

/oi/ and /oy/ (as in oil, boy)
The sounds /oi/ and /oy/ are a combination of two vowel sounds. This sound is relatively easy for students to pronounce.

/oo/ (as in too)
Students may confuse the sound of /

/oo/ (as in look)
Students may confuse the sound of /oo/ for the more familiar sound of long u (i.e. full--fool).

EXTRA SOUNDS

/ng/ (as in sing)
This is an unfamiliar sound to many non-native English speakers. For this reason, it may be difficult to pronounce at the end of words. Also, some students may substitute the /ng/ sound with the more familiar /n/ sound (i.e. sang--sane). Remind students to raise the back of the tongue, NOT the tip, to accurately pronounce the sound /ng/.

/zh/ (as in vision)
Sometimes the /zh/ sound is confused with the sounds /sh/ and /j/ (i.e. vision--vishion; lesion--legion). If the vocal cords are not vibrating, the sound will be /sh/ instead of /zh/.


Information adapted from Decoding Strategies for Literacy Development published by Reading Horizons.
Some information adapted from: Dale, P. and Poms, L. (1999). English Pronunciation for International Students. Prentice Hall Regents: USA.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks...this info should prove to be helpful :)

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  2. Christine,

    Thanks for your comment. I hope this info DOES prove to be helpful to you...and your students!

    ReplyDelete