I D Pronunciation

The English language is spoken in many countries throughout the world. In this modern day, "global society," the English language is used as the common language for international communication. As a result, English is well on its way to becoming the dominant global language. (1) As a result, people of all nationalities are obliged to learn English as a second language. However, pronunciation of the English language by people of different nationalities is varied the world over. On closer inspection, it appears that different nationalities have their own unique pronunciation problems. This is because English words often contain sounds (or phonemes) that are unique to the English language. The native language spoken in a particular country can effect the English language...  [Read more]

The English language is spoken in many countries throughout the world. In this modern day, "global society," the English language is used as the common language for international communication. As a result, English is well on its way to becoming the dominant global language. (1) As a result, people of all nationalities are obliged to learn English as a second language. However, pronunciation of the English language by people of different nationalities is varied the world over. On closer inspection, it appears that different nationalities have their own unique pronunciation problems. This is because English words often contain sounds (or phonemes) that are unique to the English language. The native language spoken in a particular country can effect...  [Read more]

IntrodutionEnglish Pronunciation: How does it differ and why' We''re all native English speakers aren''t we, what''s all this about sounding different' Everyone knows that a guy from the states sounds different to a fellow from England. But, can we break it down' Can we state a few simple rules that are continually repeating' Rules that a country''s native always follow when pronouncing a word. The rules which determine their accent. Let''s try. MainAccents vary within countries, so as a starting point, let''s just take the standard English that is spoken. This is considered to be ''General American'' for the US and ''Received Pronunciation'' for England.Rule 1: American is rhotic (i.e. pronouncing all r''s) and English is non-rhotic (pronouncing r''s only when followed by a...  [Read more]

Introdution English Pronunciation: How does it differ and why? We??re all native English speakers aren??t we, what??s all this about sounding different? Everyone knows that a guy from the states sounds different to a fellow from England. But, can we break it down? Can we state a few simple rules that are continually repeating? Rules that a country??s native always follow when pronouncing a word. The rules which determine their accent. Let??s try. Main Accents vary within countries, so as a starting point, let??s just take the standard English that is spoken. This is considered to be ??General American?? for the US and ??Received Pronunciation?? for England. Rule 1: American is rhotic (i.e. pronouncing all r??s) and English is non-rhotic (pronouncing r??s only when...  [Read more]

During my first week at the TEFL course in Phuket, Thailand, I began to notice that the pronunciation of the Thai students was lacking a bit. I do not blame this condition on the teachers, nor on the students themselves, but the pronunciation predicament immediately stuck out to me as a problem for which I would like to find some resolution. For this reason, I decided to look further into the difficulties Thai students have when learning such a widely- used foreign language as English. What I found was that most of the pronunciation problems stem from the vast differences the two languages contain. For many teachers and students alike, the dissimilarities become so numerous that they easily begin to overwhelm everyone involved in the process of learning a new ...  [Read more]

For the ESL teacher in China, it is vitally important to understand common pronunciation problems the Chinese student has pronouncing English words.Using the internet, one can find several websites that provide important information regarding these common pronunciation problems.First it is important to understand why the Chinese have difficulty pronouncing English.A search on the internet provides the following link: http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol36/no1/p37.htm, On this website, Cheng Fanggzhi, an associate professor at Binzhou Teachers´ College in Shandong Province, China has an article titled 'The Teaching of Pronunciation to Chinese Students of English'.According to Cheng Fangzhi, the Chinese students have great difficulty with 'gap' consonants such as:...  [Read more]

1.IntroductionWhen teaching English worldwide, one has to consider that there are two major dialects: The British (BrE) and the North American (AmE). A decision should be made by any responsible teacher as to which he or she teaches. A reason to adopt the AmE form could be teaching students for tourism jobs, because of the larger number of US- American tourists there are compared to British ones, while the BrE dialect might be preferable for business students because it is still considered an advantage in some work areas.In the following article we will go through some of the most common differences. However, the interested reader should consult the sources indicated in the annex when willing to obtain a capacity of consistent teaching of either of the two.2.GrammarApart from...  [Read more]

North American English Pronunciation: Difficulties of the Spanish Speaker<br /><br />The variety of English spoken in North America not only has particular grammatical structures, vocabulary, slang, and orthography, but it also comprises a unique system of pronunciation. Improper pronunciation can render a word unintelligible and yet the main goal of learning a language is to be able to communicate. While native-like pronunciation may never be attainable for some learners, it is important for teachers of English to identify potential problem areas so that their students will at least be able to communicate competently.<br /><br />The Spanish speaker will encounter several phonetic difficulties upon learning North American English (NAE). First, I will...  [Read more]

As a global language, English has been popularly taught as the second language in China for quite a few years. Now there are more Chinese people learning English on various purposes, such as applying for a higher paid job, studying and living abroad, or establishing business with western countries. According to my experience of learning and teaching English, it is harder to master English pronunciation than English grammar for Chinese students. Chinese grammar may appear quite simple compared to that of many highly-inflected Western languages (e.g. Russian, Latin, etc.), or even the low-scale verb conjugations, for instance, of English (e.g. &quot;swim, swam, swum&quot;) because of the lack of inflections. (1) Even though there are similarities between...  [Read more]

Teaching English to students in Costa Rica is probably one of the easiest countries in the world in which to teach English. First of all, English is now required in the schools, Spanish is much closer to English in most sounds, almost identical alphabets are used, the general culture is open, the students like to talk, and the education of Costa Ricans is relatively high. However, there are several problems that can be encountered, some of which are rather unexpected, which include pronunciation, spelling, discipline, motivation, and general education level. There are certain pronunciation difficulties that Costa Ricans encounter. The primary one is with the 'th' sound. There is no sound like that in Latin American Spanish so they want to say it with just a 't', 'd', or 'f'...  [Read more]

The English language is undisputedly one of the most challenging languages to learn, predominantly due to the vast number of inconsistencies and frequent irregularities and exceptions to the rule (am almost clich?d term). English, like all languages, is constantly developing and evolving ? it is not fixed, and not unlike to physical environment, is being subjected to an increasing number of changes (possible the result of increasing globalization). Historically, England was the birthplace of English ? it has, however, spread widely, and not exactly, to many parts of the world. As language spreads, words become altered, words become are added, and possibly most frequently ? words are lost. One only needs to read Shakespeare to appreciate that language is alive and ...  [Read more]

The English language is undisputedly one of the most challenging languages to learn, predominantly due to the vast number of inconsistencies and frequent irregularities and exceptions to the rule (am almost clichéd term).English, like all languages, is constantly developing and evolving – it is not fixed, and not unlike to physical environment, is being subjected to an increasing number of changes (possible the result of increasing globalization). Historically, England was the birthplace of English – it has, however, spread widely, and not exactly, to many parts of the world. As language spreads, words become altered, words become are added, and possibly most frequently – words are lost. One only needs to read Shakespeare to appreciate that language is...  [Read more]

As a global language, English has been popularly taught as the second language in China for quite a few years. Now there are more Chinese people learning English on various purposes, such as applying for a higher paid job, studying and living abroad, or establishing business with western countries. According to my experience of learning and teaching English, it is harder to master English pronunciation than English grammar for Chinese students. Chinese grammar may appear quite simple compared to that of many highly-inflected Western languages (e.g. Russian, Latin, etc.), or even the low-scale verb conjugations, for instance, of English (e.g. "swim, swam, swum") because of the lack of inflections. (1)Even though there are similarities between English alphabet and Chinese one...  [Read more]

Like the people of other nations, Thai people face many problems when trying to learn English; some of these problems are cultural and some are more rooted in the many obvious differences between the two languages. Different age groups or students of different levels may not always face the same problems. A class of intermediate children is likely to have different problems to those of an adult class of beginners. One issue that can be quite frustrating as a teacher is rooted in the Thai culture of not wishing to lose face. This often leads to students being shy and unresponsive in class. They are scared of making mistakes in front of their peers as this would cause them to lose face. Another issue that is based on culture and can also be frustrating for a teacher is a tendency...  [Read more]

During my first week at the TEFL course in Phuket, Thailand, I began to notice that the pronunciation of the Thai students was lacking a bit. I do not blame this condition on the teachers, nor on the students themselves, but the pronunciation predicament immediately stuck out to me as a problem for which I would like to find some resolution. For this reason, I decided to look further into the difficulties Thai students have when learning such a widely- used foreign language as English. What I found was that most of the pronunciation problems stem from the vast differences the two languages contain. For many teachers and students alike, the dissimilarities become so numerous that they easily begin to overwhelm everyone involved in the process of learning a new language. But...  [Read more]

  This teaching idea is very similar to the activity we can use for the future continuous. We pair up our students, give them diaries and have them find the day on which both of them are free to meet. This video shows you exactly how to execute this activity in the classroom. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Pronunciation is extremely difficult area, especially in languages far removed linguistically from English. A German most certainly has an...  [Read more]

  So let's take an example of what those drills might involve. So here is an example of a repetition drill. I will model the language and then my class will repeat after me. So "This is a cup." "Spoon" ? "This is a spoon." "Knife" - "his is a knife." Thank you. The reason that it's called or also called the army method is that it was the method adopted by the United States military who had personnel stationed around the world at the end of Second World War and they realized that they needed those personnel to pick up the language very quickly and one of the positive things about this particular methodology is that you do very quickly learn vocabulary. Another positive thing about it is that you quickly learn the correct pronunciation of that vocabulary. However, there are some...  [Read more]

IntroductionConsidering the difficulties that learners from different backgrounds are faced with is appropriate because I will soon embark on a teaching career which will bring me in contact with many people from different backgrounds and the challenges they face in mastering the English language. Having learnt English myself at some point in life, has made me aware of some of the difficulties my students are faced with. My experience in having overcome these difficulties could be a great help to my students, if these are used in the proper way. The danger is that one might compare others to oneself. This is useless because it's extremely difficult to say that people with a certain background only face one set of problems. The difficulties are as many and as varied as the...  [Read more]

Introduction Considering the difficulties that learners from different backgrounds are faced with is appropriate because I will soon embark on a teaching career which will bring me in contact with many people from different backgrounds and the challenges they face in mastering the English language. Having learnt English myself at some point in life, has made me aware of some of the difficulties my students are faced with. My experience in having overcome these difficulties could be a great help to my students, if these are used in the proper way. The danger is that one might compare others to oneself. This is useless because it?s extremely difficult to say that people with a certain background only face one set of problems. The difficulties are as many and as varied...  [Read more]

During the late seventeenth century while James, Duke of York, was renaming New Amsterdam. The vowel ' as in 'man' was lenghtening in certain contexts. In words like 'laugh' and 'path' and 'pass' wich end in unvoiced fricatives, in words like 'dance'and 'plant', which end in a nasal and an s or t, and in words where the ' was followed by r, that short vowel began to grow long. The older pronunciation of 'dance was d'ns, wholly acceptable today to english speakers outside the cultural area dominated by London, then it became d':ns. It was not until the nineteenth century, that this long ' decided to migrate to the back of the mout and become the α: which is charachteristic of southern speech today. It is a source of mockery, or reluctant admiration, among provincials and...  [Read more]

I am a ?Purist? at heart. For me the only acceptable, the only correct, the only ?propah? way to speak (and spell) English is as illustrated in the Encyclopedia Britannica ? the British English, so to speak. I have always been a staunch champion of Dr. Doolittle and all the other guardians of the English language. However, being a teacher of the English language, I can no longer turn a blind eye to the ?globalization? of English, which is - ?now a mish-mash of words incorporated from over 350 languages, and is still undergoing constant change, with hundreds of words/phrases coming into existence every year, some fading away, but many finding their way into dictionaries and thesauruses! One can pronounce words in many different ways and still be understood!! The...  [Read more]

I am a 'Purist' at heart. For me the only acceptable, the only correct, the only 'propah' way to speak (and spell) English is as illustrated in the Encyclopedia Britannica ' the British English, so to speak. I have always been a staunch champion of Dr. Doolittle and all the other guardians of the English language.However, being a teacher of the English language, I can no longer turn a blind eye to the 'globalization' of English, which is - 'now a mish-mash of words incorporated from over 350 languages, and is still undergoing constant change, with hundreds of words/phrases coming into existence every year, some fading away, but many finding their way into dictionaries and thesauruses! One can pronounce words in many different ways and still be understood!! The emergence of so ...  [Read more]

IntroductionIn this article I will gather the most common problems/difficulties Thai learners have when learning English. I will spot the main difficulties you as the teacher will deal with and I will give my tips/solutions of how you can understand the problems and deal with them.The article is based on own experience and new information I have learned from this course.Some of the major differences between Thai learners and European learners are:Certain students can be reluctant to talk and produce English in class. It can be caused by natural shyness or just the fact that they cannot express themselves in English or it can have its roots in cultural issues.How do we deal with these issues and how do we know if certain behaviour is caused by student´s culture or by natural ...  [Read more]

When it comes to accents we all have one no matter where in the world we were brought up. Most of us are familiar with the basic differences between British and American accents, but what about accents from Australia and New Zealand, Canada and South Africa? And within each of these countries there are dozens of regional accents, just to complicate things further. So, we all have an accent, but is it a problem when teaching English as a foreign language? The first thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong accent when it comes to teaching and learning English. When teaching it is fine to speak naturally, just be sure that you always speak clearly and that all your instructions are fully understood by the whole class. Whether there is one accent that is better to teach than others...  [Read more]

'gIf the English language made any sense, catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.'h (Doug Larson) Before delving into problems facing Thai students learning English I'fll outline some of the positives. Many students prefer farang (foreigner) teachers partly due to a more informal teaching style, but also because a speaker of the native tongue can address pronunciation issues in a way that a non-native speaker cannot. Added to this a lifetimes knowledge of conversational English is more relevant than the rigid, sometimes rarely used, vocabulary and structure of textbooks. Native speakers are employed extensively in schools, businesses and colleges throughout Thailand. Initially the main problem facing students is that the Thai alphabet is entirely different to the Roman...  [Read more]

Pronunciation problems happen when speaking a second language because most people are used to hearing and making sounds only exist in their mother tongue. For example there might be many sounds in your mother tongue and English that are similar.Some however,are only partially similar and others are totally different.When you hear or trying to say the partially similar or totally different sounds it?s easy to make mistakes because you are used to hearing and making sounds in your mother tongue.It is important therefore,to make yourself aware of how sounds in a different language are made and practice listening to them and saying them as much as possible. To make language sounds we move our jaw,tongue,lips and the vocal cords in our throat in a number of different...  [Read more]

gIf the English language made any sense, catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.?h (Doug Larson) Before delving into problems facing Thai students learning English I?fll outline some of the positives. Many students prefer farang (foreigner) teachers partly due to a more informal teaching style, but also because a speaker of the native tongue can address pronunciation issues in a way that a non-native speaker cannot. Added to this a lifetimes knowledge of conversational English is more relevant than the rigid, sometimes rarely used, vocabulary and structure of textbooks. Native speakers are employed extensively in schools, businesses and colleges throughout Thailand. Initially the main problem facing students is that the Thai alphabet is entirely different to the...  [Read more]

English is one of the most commonly used languages in India, especially by the urban Indian. Almost every Indian, even if he/she has had no formal schooling, uses at least a dozen English words in day to day communication. However, this 'In-glish' doesn't suffice in an international scenario, and one can see that language schools here in the UAE have a larger percentage of Indian students than others. Interestingly, an Indian student finds it easier to write English than speak. This may partly be due to cultural reasons. Similarly, an Indian learner has a larger receptive vocabulary than a productive one. As an Indian EFL teacher, I find these aspects intriguing.Problems with grammar:All EFL students find it difficult to understand ' and use -- perfect tenses. They usually...  [Read more]

The Italian and the English language are totally different in writing, speaking and listening. The first derives from the Latin language family , the second from the Anglo- Saxon. Although the English language adopts many Latin words, they are not commonly used, and the pronunciation is completely different. Because of this, it's very common to come through 'false friends' like the word 'actually' 'attualmente' in Italian, which means 'at the moment', while in English we know that it has a different meaning. For this reason Italians are inclined to use many Latin words which are not used in everyday English. There are dozens of similar examples like this that can be very confusing for the Italian students.The Italian language is quite a simple language at least for what it ...  [Read more]

Listening to music stimulates students to learn English and works as a change of class atmosphere. Songs make an enjoyable learning environment. Songs have a small amount of information and a high degree of superfluity; they make songs sound simple and this aid to understanding. They contain authentic language, are easily attainable, provide vocabulary and cultural aspects and are fun for the students. They provide enjoyable speaking, listening, vocabulary and language practice both in and out of the classroom. Songs are a good resource for English Teaching; ''They are funny and can be selected to suit the needs and interests of the students. Students think songs are natural and fun. Fun, even silly songs abound in English. As texts, songs are interesting because most do not...  [Read more]