Pronunciation problems for Spanish learners of... Pronunciation problems for Spanish learners of English. Spanish speakers learning English frequently have problems with pronunciation because of the differences between the two languages' sound systems. Pronunciation mistakes happen when a sound in the target language, in this case, English, doesn’t exist in the speaker’s native tongue (Russian). Do you fancy going for a ↘drink tonight? This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This means that Spanish speakers may find it difficult to ‘squash’ what lies between the stressed syllables. Spanish speakers are a diverse bunch, hailing from all around the world. How to deal with students who do not know phonemic script, Online TEFL Course w/ Skype mentoring (160 hours). Spelling words in English is challenging work. Correction of common English pronunciation mistakes made by learners with Spanish as … If you want to make a good impression when speaking Spanish, here are seven common pronunciation mistakes English speakers make that you can avoid. Another significant factor that hampers the improvement of their pronunciation skills is their limited exposure to the language. /r/ & silent ‘r’ The most important area is making the right shape with the mouth, rather than focussing on the length of the sound: Spanish has just one high front vowel [i] and Spanish speakers often use this vowel for both the /ɪ/ vowel in HIT and the /iː/ vowel in HEAT. As a matter of fact, many native speakers of English have problems with spelling correctly. Throughout my 3-month teaching experience I came to the conclusion that teaching pronunciation to Spanish EFL learners should be prioritised and considered as significant as teaching vocabulary and grammar. First of all, Spanish is a syllable-timed language which means that the amount of time it takes to say an utterance depends on the number of syllables, whereas in English, the timing depends on the number of stressed syllables. Likewise, the absence of the schwa [ə] in the Spanish IPA creates confusion to the Spanish speaking learners of English, who substitute the sound with another letter based on the spelling of the word. Inglés ¡Qué buen acento! This is the reason for one of the biggest pronunciation problems that Spanish speaking learners confront, which is the fact that, unlike English, there is no distinction between long and short vowels in their language. This is clearly not the case in English. Spanish speakers, therefore, often have trouble distinguishing between words like "beat" and "bit." GB English uses a wide pitch range and high falling tones are very common, whereas Spanish uses more rising tones: It’s very ↘good. In this post, I'm going to present some English pronunciation problems that are typical for speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese. How do you present yourself and your experience? Differences between English in Japan and Sri Lanka. These mistakes can make it difficult for a native speaker to understand you, so you should try to work on them. The TEFL trainer programme covers all neccessary topics to make you a confident and well prepared teacher. A well-known pronunciation problem, which even the highest-level students find it hard to deal with, is the fact that Spanish has no word-initial consonant clusters such as /sl-,sm-, sn-, st-, sp-, sk-/. For example, it’s not uncommon for a Spanish speaker to pronounce the word “bus” as “boos”, or “tip” as “teep” because they are relying on the Spanish pronunciation and not the English one. Teaching pronunciation and using repetition to help learning. Perhaps the single biggest pronunciation problem for Spanish speakers is that their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowels. Broadly speaking, there are some identifiable issues that most Spanish speakers tend to struggle with in their quest for English fluency. I had no experience in that sector but the staff helped me a lot. In other words, the English [ɹ] is softer and weaker than the Spanish one. To be more concise, I will mention the difficulties they have in pronouncing certain vowels and consonants. This is very common in Spanish speakers’ pronunciation of English as well, leading to pronunciations like “I am from Espain”. ESLAN’S Common Pronunciation Problems for Spanish Learners of English This article comes with a very helpful ESLAN YouTube video. However, the schwa sound is the most common English vowel: [ə]. How to teach students the pronunciation of –ed and –s endings? We’ve also … In Spanish, there are specific ways of pronouncing letters and letter combinations, which are noticeably different than the English language. Thus, words such as “expression” or “exquisite” are pronounced as „espression‟ and “esquisite”. Participants were Ten Sudanese University learners of English who primarily speak Arabic. One ‘i’ in English is normally the lower /ɪ/ vowel: Spanish speakers often make the vowels in HUT /hʌt/, HAT /hæt/ and HEART /hɑːt/ into the Spanish /a/ – they should be made in different positions in English: Spanish /u/ is made with the tongue at the back of the mouth, English /uː/ in FOOD is more central, and English /ʊ/ in GOOD is more open and central (note also that the spelling < oo > can produce both sounds in English): The central, neutral vowel /ɜː/ in HURT, EARLY, BIRD, WORSE, PREFER is often mispronounced by Spanish speakers because there is no similar vowel sound in the Spanish, and the spellings are confusing: ‘ir’ bird, shirt, sir ‘or’ worse, worth, world ‘ur’ hurt, turn, burn ‘er/ear’ prefer, heard, early. One of the most important differences between Spanish and English is that the former has only five vowel sounds whereas the latter has more than fourteen. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Teaching in Western Europe Do Spanish people make a lot of mistakes when speaking English? English has 12 vowels and eight diphthongs, while Spanish has only five of each. When pronouncing important English diphthong / double vowels Spanish speakers often make one vowel instead of two vowels. Creating a lesson focused on business language, Lesson Plan - Level B1 - Accents in English, A reflection on my experience teaching pronunciation. Spanish is spoken far and wide, serving as the official language in countries of North, South and Central America, Europe and Africa. Possessive adjectives; Given that Spanish su, as in su libro can mean both ‘his book’ and ‘her book’, depending on the context, and that all Spanish nouns have either feminine or masculine gender, it’s little wonder that Spanish speakers often mix up his and her. How the Cultural Revolution impacted the teaching system in Cuba in 1961, Being taught English grammar from a German point of view. As it can be either a voiced dental fricative [ð] or a voiceless dental fricative [θ], the students don‟t usually know which sound to use in order to utter the word. Furthermore, I have noted various consonant cluster simplifications and elisions by my Spanish students. Moreover, as the letter /h/ is not pronounced in Spanish, the students have the tendency not to pronounce the voiceless consonant in words such as “hat” or “hate”, hence uttering the words “at” and “ate”. How to teach students about academic writing? The explanation of this pronunciation problem lies in the Andalusian phonological features. Making the most of audio-visual resources in the EFL classroom, Common mistakes to avoid as a TEFL teacher. … I’ve been teaching English for a long time, mostly in private classes, and I’ve always felt attracted by the challenge of giving an answer to all the problems the pronunciation of English poses to us Spanish speakers. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Pronunciation mistakes happen when a sound in the target language, in this case, English, doesn’t exist in the speaker’s native tongue (Spanish). TEFL as the first step for a teaching career. You can learn to avoid these common errors, and your Spanish-speaking friends will know that at least you're making an effort. English vowel data was the materials of the native speakers of English. This work experience of teaching was really perfect for me. It can also be a certain sequence of sounds or a specific position of a sound in a word that never occurs in the speaker’s native tongue. If you are a native Spanish-speaker and you want to improve your English pronunciation then this webinar is for YOU! This article uses English IPA symbols – learn each of them with pronunciation notes, diagrams and audio in Pronunciation Studio’s free Starter Pack. This means you don’t have to alter the verb from its infinitive form. This can result in a failure to convey the message and can cause troubles in communication. As this sound doesn’t exist in the Spanish phonological system, the students tend to substitute it with [ɛ] or [a]. Spanish speakers don’t tend to pull the tongue back when making the /ʃ/ sound, so it sounds more like /s/: English /h/ is a glottal fricative – it’s the sound you make when steaming up a mirror. Because vowel pronunciation is always the same in Spanish, it is easy for Spanish speakers to pronounce English vowels incorrectly. Though Spanish speakers are generally very communicative even if their English level is quite low, their accent and pronunciation issues can cause breakdowns in communication. What difficulties do French people experience when learning English? English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers The Simple Vowels. What are the difficulties with English pronunciation for Spanish speakers? The problem with “bathe” is that the sound is just a variation on mid or final “d” for Spanish speakers. It’s only natural that, of the nearly half a billion (yes, billion) speakers worldwide, some will end up needing or wanting to learn English. Online learning vs Teacher led classes of EFL? The most common sound in English is the weak vowel, ‘schwa’ /ə/. This is a common problem for Spanish speakers as they are not distinguishing between short vowels, long vowels and double / diphthong vowels. Last but not least, Spanish speaking students, more specifically Andalusian students, have the tendency not to pronounce the final /s/ of a word.