English pronunciation can be a big problem for some ESL students. In my experience as a teacher of English for primary stage, a student whose native language is Arabic has some difficulties in English pronunciation either by replacing or adding or mispronouncing sounds. These are some errors that were noticed for a group of Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language in a governmental elementary school .
Mispronouncing the "th":
Students pronounce "th" as /s/ when it should be pronounced as /θ/ in words like "think". Or /z/ when it should be pronounced as /ð/ for example, "there".
I usually go over the differences between the four types of sounds and ask my students to place their tongue between their teeth when pronouncing …show more content…
I usually ask them to start with /s/ not /es/.
Pronouncing /p/ as /b/: Since the students do not have /p/ in their native language they pronounce it /b/.for example "bark " instead of "park". The matter which totally changes the meaning. I usually ask my students to let the air comes out of their lips when pronouncing this sound and I tell them a story of a man that wanted to find a place to park…
Some vowels has only one type of pronunciation:
Some learners tend to pronounce the vowels "oo" and "o" as/ ʊ/ or /uː/ in words like son /sʌn/,blood /blʌd/,monkey /mʌnkey/.This is because of their first background about each sound, so they picture this thought in their minds as if each vowel has only one type of pronunciation. I try to overcome this problem by reading the words and asking them to repeat and figure out the vowel sound.
Replacing /t/ with /d/ at the end of words: words like 'liked ' 'cooked '. They pronounce them /kʊkid/ or /laiked/ instead of /kʊkt/ or /laikt/ .I tell my students that the 'ed ' at the end of these words are pronounced /t/ not /d/ and with a certain funny facial expression I tell them that we should not pronounce them /kʊkid/ or /laiked/.
Replacing /tʃ/ with …show more content…
(Ahmad,2011) also found ,in a case study on Arabic speakers ,that these mistakes are often because when students learn a second or foreign language, they face some overlaps between their first language and the foreign language they are learning .These overlaps are because of the very different phoneme systems of both languages. So, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. For example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words play and cheap as blay and
Mispronouncing the "th":
Students pronounce "th" as /s/ when it should be pronounced as /θ/ in words like "think". Or /z/ when it should be pronounced as /ð/ for example, "there".
I usually go over the differences between the four types of sounds and ask my students to place their tongue between their teeth when pronouncing …show more content…
I usually ask them to start with /s/ not /es/.
Pronouncing /p/ as /b/: Since the students do not have /p/ in their native language they pronounce it /b/.for example "bark " instead of "park". The matter which totally changes the meaning. I usually ask my students to let the air comes out of their lips when pronouncing this sound and I tell them a story of a man that wanted to find a place to park…
Some vowels has only one type of pronunciation:
Some learners tend to pronounce the vowels "oo" and "o" as/ ʊ/ or /uː/ in words like son /sʌn/,blood /blʌd/,monkey /mʌnkey/.This is because of their first background about each sound, so they picture this thought in their minds as if each vowel has only one type of pronunciation. I try to overcome this problem by reading the words and asking them to repeat and figure out the vowel sound.
Replacing /t/ with /d/ at the end of words: words like 'liked ' 'cooked '. They pronounce them /kʊkid/ or /laiked/ instead of /kʊkt/ or /laikt/ .I tell my students that the 'ed ' at the end of these words are pronounced /t/ not /d/ and with a certain funny facial expression I tell them that we should not pronounce them /kʊkid/ or /laiked/.
Replacing /tʃ/ with …show more content…
(Ahmad,2011) also found ,in a case study on Arabic speakers ,that these mistakes are often because when students learn a second or foreign language, they face some overlaps between their first language and the foreign language they are learning .These overlaps are because of the very different phoneme systems of both languages. So, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. For example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words play and cheap as blay and