english pronunciation problems for spanish speakers

is the course that will help you solve your problems of pronunciation and get rid of your strong accent." The problem with “bathe” is that the sound is just a variation on mid or final “d” for Spanish speakers. This means you don’t have to alter the verb from its infinitive form. This reflective diary will focus mainly on the various pronunciation problems that Spanish speaking learners of English have. Broadly speaking, there are some identifiable issues that most Spanish speakers tend to struggle with in their quest for English fluency. Spanish speakers learning English frequently have problems with pronunciation because of the differences between the two languages’ sound systems. The TEFL trainer programme covers all neccessary topics to make you a confident and well prepared teacher. How to teach students the pronunciation of –ed and –s endings? English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers The Simple Vowels. The written form of this word is exactly the same in Spanish, but the spoken form differs significantly. Since many of our Accent Softening clients are Spanish speakers, we thought it would be helpful to explore specific challenges Spanish speakers face – from pronunciation problems to intonation - and what you can do to overcome them. To be more concise, I will mention the difficulties they have in pronouncing certain vowels and consonants. The relationship in English between pronunciation and orthography (sound and spelling) is a nightmare for Spanish speakers because these two aspects are joined at the hip in their language. Additionally, they find it really difficult to utter certain diphthongs such as /əʊ/ in “boat”, /eɪ/ in “great” and /aɪ/ in “right”. If you want to make a good impression when speaking Spanish, here are seven common pronunciation mistakes English speakers make that you can avoid. As the latter doesn’t exist in the Spanish phonetic alphabet, a “ship” can be called “cheap”. Differences between English in Japan and Sri Lanka. Infact, the majority of the students fail to pronounce the sound correctly even if I repeat it a lot of times. 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. 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-/. Therefore, they tend to confuse words such as “ship” and “sheep” or “bit” and “beat”. This is one of the most common mistakes that Spanish speakers make in English and one of the most difficult to comprehend. 5. For instance, instead of “thing” /θɪŋ/ they say “sing” /sɪŋ/. Communication skills when teaching business English to advanced students. The sound of the consonant blend /th/ is quite confusing for the Spanish speaking learners of English. One of the most common mistakes that my students do is to confuse the words “though” /ðəʊ/ and “thought” /θɔːt/. Cause of error: As many words in Spanish begin with ‘es’, Spanish speakers sometimes unconsciously use the ‘eh’ sound before English words beginning with ‘s’. TEFL Internships Spain | Online TEFL Courses | Valencia TEFL Programmes | Accredited TEFL. English vowel data was the materials of the native speakers of English. English has 12 vowels and eight diphthongs, while Spanish has only five of each. Teaching in Western Europe Do Spanish people make a lot of mistakes when speaking English? Use of -ed and -ing . 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 … Because vowel pronunciation is always the same in Spanish, it is easy for Spanish speakers to pronounce English vowels incorrectly. One of the biggest challenges for Spanish speakers when learning English is pronunciation. Plenty of learners make the same pronunciation and, thus, spelling or orthography, mistakes. This difference between pronunciation and spelling causes a lot of confusion. During my TEFL training in Valencia I gained a lot of new knowledge and fantastic experiences. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. This is a great course (…) In particular, Julia offers impeccable support throughout the whole process and dedicates a lot of time to her interns! What’s her name? Correction of common English pronunciation mistakes made by learners with Spanish as … Pronunciation is the sound each letter makes when put together to form a word. One of the most common mistakes my students make is the pronunciation of the word “comfortable” /kʌmfətəbl/. What EFL exams are popular/important outside of Spain? As I have also observed, low-level students are inclined to confuse the sound [θ] with the sound [s]. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. I really enjoyed the blend of online training with teaching in Madrid, giving me a chance to implement what I had learnt. Therefore, Spanish students need to be exposed to the language by listening to native speakers in order to assimilate thecorrect pronunciation and thus hold efficient conversations. 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. This can cause problems with ship and sheep, and bit and beat, among other words. ConclusionAll things considered, these are just a few of the pronunciation problems that Spanishpeople have when they speak English. According to my observations, this makes the students either confuse it with the sound [w] or substitute the postalveolar approximant [ɹ] with the much easier for them alveolar tap. In both cases, an Andalusian student does not pronounce the final sound. In other words, they tend to learn more about the language and how the language is structured than to learn the language itself. In addition, the schwa – the most common sound used in weak … 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. /r/ & silent ‘r’ The TEFL trainer is a great course and provided me with a wonderful experience teaching in Madrid. It is doubtless that the mispronunciation of a word can affect the stress of it as well as the intonation of the whole sentence. What difficulties do French people experience when learning English? 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. Do you fancy going for a ↘drink tonight? Spanish To English Conversion: Pronunciation Problems for Latinos This link includes playable audio of pronunciation. If your mother tongue is Spanish, you may find learning and pronouncing some English words and phrases very challenging. 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. As far as consonant sounds are concerned, the EFL learners encounter a great amount of problems. This can be even more complicated with words such as “champagne”, where /ch/ is actually pronounced as /sh/ [ʃ].. In other words, the English [ɹ] is softer and weaker than the Spanish one. If you are a native Spanish-speaker and you want to improve your English pronunciation then this webinar is for YOU! As a consequence, the mispronunciation of the specific sound causes miscomprehension. - Liliana Parker, Editor, Acento Latino ; What makes this course better than other English pronunciation guides for Spanish speakers? Firstly, Spanish doesn’t differentiate between short and long sounds. This is clearly not the case in English. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Here we present to you the most common errors made by Spanish-speaking students at Pronunciation Studio (audio is firstly in GB English then with a Spanish accent): 1. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. How do I prepare a Lesson Plan using a variety of Resources? This is very common in Spanish speakers’ pronunciation of English as well, leading to pronunciations like “I am from Espain”. The type of English referred to is the General British pronunciation (“GB”) and not the General American variety from which it has a small number of notable differences. Areas of English pronunciation such as stress and rhythm, the sound /v/, diphthong vowels and weak vowels are particularly challenging for Spanish speakers. They also confuse the consonants "v" and "b" and … Some examples are the final /s/ in the third singular person (e.g. Typical Problems Spanish Speakers Face. Spanish speakers, therefore, often have trouble distinguishing between words like "beat" and "bit." The importance of IELTS/Cambridge exams in Spain, How planning can save your life in an exam. Last but not least, Spanish speaking students, more specifically Andalusian students, have the tendency not to pronounce the final /s/ of a word. Unlike most languages, the “th” sounds in “thing” and “bathe” do exist in Spanish. 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. Making the most of audio-visual resources in the EFL classroom, Common mistakes to avoid as a TEFL teacher. Participants were Ten Sudanese University learners of English who primarily speak Arabic. Copyright 2008 - 2019 Pronunciation Studio Ltd | All Rights Reserved |. Online learning vs Teacher led classes of EFL? How did I tackle the main issues of a speaking lesson and learn to successfully conduct one? boys). 10 Pronunciation Errors by Spanish Speakers of English This resource focuses on British English instead of the North American English … Spanish speakers are a diverse bunch, hailing from all around the world. This system was designed for Spanish speakers by a Spanish speaker who himself has lost his foreign accent. 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. I attended a workshop across two weekends on teaching business, young learners and exam preparation which were equally as well-planned and engaging. The reflective diaries were also really helpful to delve deeper into the theory behind teaching. What do you think about the weather? How to teach students about academic writing? In Spanish, there are specific ways of pronouncing letters and letter combinations, which are noticeably different than the English language. As a consequence, Spanish people are not used to listening to the English language, hence they are not exposed to the correct pronunciation of the words. We’ve also … What are the benefits of modernising homework away from traditional methods in order to make learning a language more enjoyable? Therefore, my students usually substitute the two schwas with the Spanish sounds of the letter they read, i.e. Vowel Pronunciation Problems. Another pronunciation problem often encountered when French students study English is the -r sound, which in French is pronounced very differently. In 2011 I worked for some months for Oxford University Press Spain as an online tutor. The following remarks deal with the problems which native speakers of Spanish are likely to experience with the English vowels. As the two languages have quite a lot of differences in terms of phonetics and phonology, they find it very difficult to utter specific sounds which don‟t exist in their Phonetic alphabet. … When we use the verb, to do, in this context it is known as an auxiliary verb (or a helping verb) which establishes the tense or state of the sentence. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. The main reason of this problem is that this sound does not exist in the Spanish language. TEFL as the first step for a teaching career. This can be explained by the fact that this phonological process occurs in the Spanish language as well, as words such as “Extremadura” are pronounced as “Estremadura”. If your mother tongue is French, you may find certain sounds in English more difficult than others. [ɒ] and [a]. However, the schwa sound is the most common English vowel: [ə]. Moreover, it is impossible for them to pronounce correctly the words that carry the vowel sound [æ] such as “cat”, “fat” or “apple”. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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. How do students from China and Spain compare? Words sound as they are spelled and are spelled like they sound. What do you do to prepare your EFL students for state or standardised English tests? English has 12 vowels and eight diphthongs, while Spanish has only five of each. You’ll correct all these areas and more with this fantastic English Pronunciation Course For Spanish speakers. The English / h /, however, is much, much softer, like the sound you make when you’re breathing hard in order to warm your hands. I had no experience in that sector but the staff helped me a lot. It is a common mistake for the Spanish students to say that they are from “Espain” instead of “Spain”.The pronunciation of the English letter /r/ is another major issue for the Spanish EFL learners. Here are 10 common errors Spanish learners of English tend to make. 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. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. As I have already mentioned, Spanish letters are written as pronounced. One of the major problems that Spanish learners of English face is related to their pronunciation skills. You can learn to avoid these common errors, and your Spanish-speaking friends will know that at least you're making an effort. Based on acoustical analysis of the English vowel tokens are spoken by both Sudanese and native speakers … Vowel Sound Positions. 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These cookies do not store any personal information. They tend to forget to pronounce the –s ending in 3rd person, singular, of verbs in … They sometimes tend to pronounce consonants that are silent, like the “d” in Wednesday or the “g” in foreign. The study was expected to have problems with pronunciation of English vowels in both individual words and real communication. 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. It was quite interesting to notice that the majority of the English TV series or films were dubbed into Spanish instead of subtitled. This is one of the problems I have personally encountered the most with native Spanish speakers. 10 English Pronunciation Errors by French Speakers. The problem is that this sound can be spelt with any vowel – A, E, I, O, U and it should never be stressed, which is difficult for Spanish speakers who normally stress every syllable: Spanish /r/ involves tapping or trilling the tongue on the gum, English /r/ does not, it’s a smooth approximant: British English ‘r’ is silent at the end of a syllable (non-rhotic), Spanish speakers pronounce these ‘r’s because Spanish is rhotic: In English /v/ is a voiced fricative using teeth and lip, Spanish speakers tend to replace it with a plosive /b/ or an approximant sound using both lips: Next vacation I’d love to visit the river. 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. 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. Throughout my teaching experience, I have observed that my students tend to pronounce these words in the exact way they are written, since they are used to uttering exactly what they read. Let's get the most difficult letter for English speakers out of the way first! These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. They often stretch all vowel sounds out too much and confuse pairs of short and long English vowel sounds like “ship” and “sheep” both in comprehension and speaking. When pronouncing important English diphthong / double vowels Spanish speakers often make one vowel instead of two vowels. This can result in a failure to convey the message and can cause troubles in communication. The most common sound in English is the weak vowel, ‘schwa’ /ə/. One of the common mistakes that English speakers make, is they continue to pronounce it as if it were the hard “d” like in “dog.” If you listen to a native Spanish speaker, you’ll realize that when they pronounce the “d” in words like “ todo ” or “ lado ” it’s more of a soft, barely noticeable stop. This work experience of teaching was really perfect for me. Spanish is spoken far and wide, serving as the official language in countries of North, South and Central America, Europe and Africa. Turning the R Into Mush . Spelling words in English is challenging work. When this happens, speakers tend to pronounce a different (but somewhat similar) sound that does … This is a common problem for Spanish speakers as they are not distinguishing between short vowels, long vowels and double / diphthong vowels. The most important is the reduction of the initial /ex-/ into /es-/ through omitting the sound [k] from the consonant cluster /ks/. Our UK-based company only has a Virtual Office (Mon-Fri 10:00-15:00 GMT). What are the difficulties with English pronunciation for Spanish speakers? Spanish learners find it extremely difficult to utter a word that contains the voiced To be more concise, the students replace the English sound with the Spanish [j] which is represented by the letters /y/ or /ll/.

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