Dificultades generales de pronunciación en inglés para hispanohablantes

1.Introduction

With this investigation we can learn how can people to understand the common difficulties in English pronunciation for Spanish speakers, especially in native speakers because when we learned Spanish we acquire the language since we were a kids, however when we want to learn another language we have to develop different skills in order to learn it in a correct way, even though one of the most important part to talk is the way in which you pronounce the words because if you pronounce as well as you can the words is going to be easier in the way to speak better, because if you get some vocabulary, pronunciation and practice you will get fluency and finally speak fluently and get a successful conversation.

2.PROBLEM

Which are the main problems that Spanish speakers have to deal to learn English specifically in the pronunciation part?

3.Objectives

3.1 General Objectives

• Recognize common difficulties in English pronunciation for Spanish native speakers.

• Identifying what are the most difficult sounds for the students.

• Giving oral pronunciation.

• Practicing sounds, words, phonetic alphabetic and expressions.

3.2 Specific Objectives

• Understand a range of familiar mispronunciation problems or difficulties.

• Identifying sounds or pronunciation in social context.

• Application background knowledge to understand given real words pronunciation.

• Taking part of real conversations, practices, examples, speeches in order to get better pronunciation of the words and identifying the difference between sounds.

4. Limitations

One of the main problems that Spanish speakers have is the cultural part and the difference of the pronunciation of words in Spanish and in English. That is because we have different sounds in both languages. And at the beginning when someone is learning English tend to related the sounds of words in Spanish with the English´s ones and that would be the created a barrier to learn pronunciation.

Other problem that we can find is the accent people tend to pronounce to confuse the phonetic part is very difficult produce those sound and we never use it

5. Justification

Learning a second language is more than just knowing some words. To learn English for example we have to take into consideration everything like their culture. Also we have to know things like words are written in a way but pronounced differently.

Through this investigation we pretend to show the different barriers the students have to face when they are learning English. Barriers like the phonetic part in other words the pronunciation that sometimes is the most difficult part to learn.

6. Theory

6.1. English Pronunciation difficulties for Spanish Speakers

Spanish speakers who learn English usually face some difficulties, but is does not mean they are not going to be able to learn the language, even though they probably are going to keep an accent, that is why it is importance to make a difference between good pronunciation and accent. This is done by Teauna, who also referrers to some common mistakes in which learners incur:

“English is a language that has many different accents. It is important to note that accents are different from pronunciation. Pronunciation is the way in which a word is pronounced. Accent is a series of pronunciation, rhythm and emphasis that is local to a region or city. It is important to pronounce words correctly so that you are understandable.

Accent isn’t necessarily important; you can speak English with a Spanish accent for example and be totally understandable if you are pronouncing the words correctly. This accent will tell people that you are from Spain and that your first language is probably not English. If you wish for people to think that you are from the US, Canada, England, or Ireland you can try and take on an accent, however, it generally shouldn’t be the most important part of your studies. Below I will go through some common mispronunciation problems that many Spanish speakers have.

• failure to pronounce the end consonant accurately or strongly enough ; e.g. cart for the English word card or brish for bridge or thing for think

• problems with the /v/ in words such as vowel or revive

• difficulties in sufficiently distinguishing words such as see/she or jeep/sheep/cheap

• the tendency to prefix words beginning with a consonant cluster on s- with an /ε/ sound; so, for example, school becomes school and strip becomes strip

• the swallowing of sounds in other consonant clusters; examples: next becomes and instead becomes instead.

Below are some common emphasis problems in English.

1. English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic.

2. In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).

3. English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, non-stressed, words.

4. Stressed words are considered content words: Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter – (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct – Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting – Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Generally English is spoken from the middle of the mouth and the tongue is fairly still.

In English, the jaw is fairly relaxed, and the mouth is held in a medium open position. The tongue is held in the middle of the mouth, and the corners of the mouth are relaxed. The tongue hits the gums above the front teeth more often than the teeth themselves.

Whereas in Spanish, speakers keep their jaws loose, their mouth in a medium open position. The tongue is held slightly raised and forward, always in the vicinity of the front teeth. The lips are relaxed, but the muscles at the corners of the mouth are slightly tensed. The point of articulation is near the front of the mouth.”

When learning a language there are always aspects that interferes since the first language is used as a parameter most of the time; that happens as well, when Spanish speakers try to learn English. There are certain situations that the learners will have to face, especially when it refers to pronunciation. Some of those difficulties are presented by Alex Case as follows:

“Although a strong Spanish accent is usually easier to understand than a similarly strong French or Portuguese one, the pronunciation can cause considerable strain for the listener and seem somewhat harsh and flat. More importantly, Spanish speakers often have listening comprehension far below their other skills.

School English lessons in most Spanish-speaking countries also tend to focus much more on reading and grammar than speaking and listening, and so pronunciation work will both help redress the balance and be considered worthwhile by students.

6.1.2. Points That Spanish-Speaking Learner Of English Find Difficult

6.1.2.1. VOWELS

Perhaps the single biggest pronunciation problem for Spanish speakers is that their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowels. 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. Relevant pairs include:

• bit/beat

• not/note and not/nought

• batter/barter

• pull/pool

As the pairs above are all pronounced with different mouth positions as well as different lengths, focusing on that can help students distinguish between the minimal pairs above even if they don’t fully get the hang of vowel length.

6.1.2.2. OTHER VOWELS

In common with most learners, Spanish speakers find the distinction between the very similar sounds in “cat” and “cut” difficult to notice and produce. Perhaps more importantly, they can also have problems with the two closest sounds to an “o” sound in “not” mentioned above, making “boat” and “bought” difficult to distinguish. The unstressed schwa “er” sound in “computer” does not exist in Spanish, and neither do the closest long sounds in “fur” and “her”. Spanish speakers tend to find it much more difficult to recognize not rhotic versions of vowel sounds.

6.1.2.3. CONSONANTS

Words written with “b” and “v” are mostly pronounced identically, making this perhaps the most common spelling mistake in Spanish. There is also no distinction between the first sounds in “yacht” and “jot” in Spanish and which of those two sounds is perceived by English speakers tends to depend on the variety of Spanish spoken (this being one of the easiest ways of spotting an Argentinean accent, for example). There may also be some confusion between the first sound in “jeep” and its unvoiced equivalent in “cheap” (a common sound in Spanish).

The “ch” in “cheese” may also be confused with the “sh” in “she’s”, as the latter sound does not exist in Spanish. The difference is similar to that between “yacht” and “jot” mentioned above, being between a smooth sound (sh) and a more explosive one (ch), so the distinction can usefully be taught as a more general point. Alternatively, the “sh” in “sheep” may come out sounding more like “s” in “seep”, in which case it is mouth shape that needs to be worked on.

Spanish words never start with an “s” sound, and words which are similar to English tend to have an initial “es” sound instead, as in escuela/school. This is very common in Spanish speakers’

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