060 tips to better your pronunciation and help your students

Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 Tips to Better your Pronunciation and Help your Students Adapted from Prof Laura Aza Code Correction .U Just drop your jaw Your lips should be in a neutral position This sound may be quite back, and it may be similar to your Spanish in ‘encaje’ .z Remember this is called the ‘smiling ’ It is different from Spanish You should spread your lips more Smile! This is a front sound, so this should be more similar to an /e/ than to an P.- .@9 This is a long sound and most importantly back sound This is what you say when you go to the doctor’s to have your throat examined: ‘aaaaaahhhhhhhh’ Aspiration You need to produce more aspiration (i.e an extra puff of air) Remember to use the techniques we practiced at the workshop, i.e., holding a piece of paper and moving it with your breath, etc - /p/ Think that you’re blowing a candle This friction that occurs between the lips is necessary after a strong /p/ - /t/ Think that you have a little /s/ after the /t/ Think of the word “pizza” in Spanish… well, that is a kind of aspirated /ts/ - /k/ Think that you have a ‘jota’ sound after it Say ‘jamón’ Now insert a /k/ before it (thus, ‘kjamón’) If you managed to so, any English speaker would understand the order ‘Come on!’ So, a good aspirated /k/ must always contain a kind of Spanish ‘jota’ sound TIP: Your aspiration will be more audible if you produce a very tiny narrowing in your mouth If you open a lot, you will waste all your air and nothing will be heard! .a This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish /b/, which is usually approximant Think in terms of a /p/ sound and add voice We have a plosive /b/ in Spanish in the words ‘ambo, combo, Rambo’ Tip: Close your lips completely with your fingers as if they were pegs and release the closure suddenly A mirror can help you visualize these movements: if your lips don’t touch, that’s the Spanish A Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 Choppy It sounds too chunky Make sure you pause at the right time and not in between words which should go together You’ve got to be careful with your sounds, but you should never forget that MEANING is essential! .c This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish /d/, which is usually approximant Therefore, you should make sure there is a complete closure between the tip of your tongue and the alveolar ridge Tip: Imitate /t/ and then add voice Now… does it really sound English? Test it! Say ‘Cuando ando Armando’… these are dental plosives in Spanish Now, put on an English accent and say that phrase – remember that in Spanish a larger area of the tongue touches the palate, in English it is just the tip that touches a more internal part of the palate: the alveolar ridge .C There are two important factors to bear in mind when producing this sound First, place your tongue between your teeth so that you can see it with a mirror At the same time, it should be produced with an incredible amount of friction That is, you should feel tickles in your tongue when the air passes through it Exaggerate the , as if you were really angry, in “¡¡¡Qué TARADDDO!!!” .cY You should avoid producing this sound like a R.- It is much stronger Remember it is a mixture between a fricative and a plosive You should try producing a sR and then add voice This sound is found in the speech of people from Paraguay, Corrientes and Misiones in words such as ‘ayer, a Jessica, inyecto’ 10 Dark Z4\ This takes ‘dark L’ You should curl back your tongue Produce an /o/ Now, while you are saying an /o/, touch the alveolar ridge with the tip of your tongue Yes! That’s a dark /l/: you articulate a /l/ that resonates like an /o/ 11 Dropping of final You are dropping consonants Think that this final consonant is part of the next word E.g.: ‘End it’ should sound like !dm cHs.: Daddy did it, Ann Consonants should be cz ch !cH cH szm 12 Dropping of sounds in Consonant Clusters A cluster is a combination on consonants This is very difficult to pronounce for Spanish speakers, especially when it happens in final position or together with a word beginning with another cluster Examples: /nes klåÄs/ instead of /nekst klåÄs/ and /aˆ hæv tuÄ test tWmÅrW¨/ instead of /aˆ hæv tuÄ tests tWmÅrW¨/ Now you’re dropping one of these consonants so that it’s easier to pronounce the phrase Avoid doing this, as this may lead to grammar mistakes or meaning Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 13 .d This vowel is much opener than in Spanish You should spread your lips and open you mouth a lot more It occurs in Spanish before Compare the degrees of opening in your Spanish pero and perro – the latter is really open, identical to the English one 14 .29 This is like a schwa but longer Your lips must be in a neutral position It is the first sound that comes out when you open your mouth Don’t round your lips, don’t open your mouth much, don’t produce tension… just NOTHING! It’s a very ‘lazy’ sound! 15 .f This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish g, which is usually approximant Therefore, you should make sure there is a complete closure between the back of your tongue and the velum You’ve got to think of it as a kind of soft /k/ We have it in Spanish in the words ‘tango, rango, mango, pongo, sunga.’ 16 .g When you produce this sound, you should avoid producing a scraping sound that is typical of the Spanish ‘jota’ The place of articulation for /h/ is glottal That means that the tongue does not touch any articulator The air escapes freely once it passes the glottis Tip: Use a mirror and produce words with /h/ If you are pronouncing them correctly, the mirror should mist all over In Spanish we produce a phoneme that resembles the sound produced when we are going to spit, in English it resembles the sound we use to clean a mirror or glasses 17 .H This vowel should not sound like the Spanish /i/, but rather closer to an /e/, otherwise, it is confused with the English /i:/ It occurs in Spanish before E.g ‘birra’- You can also hear it in Spanish when we say ‘Se, se’ instead of ‘sí’ 18 .H?+ T? We tend to transfer our h` and t` into English So, if you hear that your diphthongs in ‘hear’ and ‘tour’ rhyme with the Spanish ‘tía’ and ‘púa’ it is because you are not saying H?+ T? but h9?+ t9? Pay particular attention to the starting point in each one 19 .h9 /i…/ You need to produce more tension in your tongue (not your throat!) Make sure your lips are spread out and your tongue is so high that is almost touching the palate You can find this sound in Spanish in the phrase ‘mi tía maria comía todo el día.’ 20 Linking /r/ Go over the concept of linking r You are not using it here 21 Mispronuciation This word is mispronounced Look it up in the pronunciation dictionary Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 and pronounce it accordingly 22 .Mf Final /g/ is not pronounced in English Make sure it is a very nasal sound If you keep the velum lowered so that the airflow escapes through the nose, you will not produce an oral /g/ Touch the tip of your tongue: it will vibrate a lot when you produce nasals! 23 .N9 This is a long sound and it requires a lot of tension Your lips should be closely rounded Start by producing /u:/ Keep the closely rounded lip position, but open your jaw as if to produce an /o/ If you keep these two features, you produce a good, rounded N9 24 .P Your P.is not rounded enough In American English, many words take @9 when P is the norm in British English What’s the difference? They are practically the same sound! Just make sure that you round your lips for P 25 Onglide Vowel Onglide Avoid adding a non-existent schwa before a word beginning with an s-cluster Example: stupid, smoke, snake, etc Tip: Count the number of syllables If you see that you say an extra syllable it means you are producing an onglide (.!roh9j one syllable, Vs .d!roh9j two syllables(- If your /s/ is very strong and long, you will not produce an onglide 26 Past tense You need to over the past tense rule 27 Plurals You need to go over the plurals rule 28 Present simple 3rd person You need to go over the third person singular rule for the present simple 29 Rhoticity ‘r-colouring’ Remember that British English is a non-rhotic accent This means that /r/ before silence or consonants is not pronounced Avoid curling your tongue back Make sure that the tip of your tongue is down, behind the lower teeth 30 Rhythm Rhythm Remember that English rhythm is stress-timed, that is, many syllables are shortened You should focus on the strong syllables and on making them stand out You should rush through the unimportant ones 31 .r /s/ In Spanish we “mask” all our when they come before a consonant, we just produce them as breath, a kind of [h] sound This is not the case in English So, in Spanish we say Este Z!dgsd\, Misterio Zlh!gsdqin\, Asco Z!`gjn\, but in English it must always be East h9rs., Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 Mystery !lHrs?qh., Ask @9rj., with a full-blown /s/ Compare the Spanish pronunciation of /s/ that Mexicans or Bolivians have: /s/ is ALWAYS present in their speech, as in English 32 .T This vowel should not sound like the Spanish /u/, but rather closer to a Spanish /o/, otherwise, it is confused with long t9.- We have it in Spanish before /rr/: Burro Z!aTqqn\, Curro Z!jTqqn\, Susurro Zrt!rTqqn\- TIP: Don’t round your lips much! 33 .u /v/ You need to bite the inside of your lower lip, but not so strong, as you need to leave an opening through which the air flows, thus producing friction Try producing /f/ and then add voice Tip: Make sure that you bit the very internal part of your lower lip, not the visible exterior Try to feel 34 .v /w/ This sound plus an T sound can be difficult Tip: /w/ is more closely rounded than T., so you’ve got to make sure that you are opening your mouth, no closing it when you pronounce this cluster Avoid adding a /g/ before /w/ So ‘wood’ and ‘good’ should be pronounced differently Try saying ‘wa, we, wi, wo, wuuuuu.’ You should feel air coming out of your mouth 35 Weak Forms Remember function words are usually weak 36 Weak sR+ cY .sR+ cY.- In Spanish we are nowadays changing sR.… women, especially, reduce the second element, making it really weak and short For example Mechas Z!ldsR`r\, chocolate ZsRnjn!k`sd\, chuchi Z!sRtsRh\ So, in order to have a good sR and cY.+ in English we should think of the second element as a really long and strong one Imagine it is a kind of: ZsRRRR\ nq ZsR9\ ZcYYYY\ nq ZcY9\- 37 Weaken vowels! Syllable weakening Try eliminating schwa whenever you can, because otherwise, it sounds very Spanish-like Examples: Children, Curtain, didn’t, kitchen Sometimes, you may be tempted to produce quite a strong vowel instead of /?/: avoid doing so! ‘August’ and ‘album’ are !N9fTrs+ !zkaTl and not !N9f?rs+ !zka?l 38 Word Stress Wrong stress Check in what syllable this word bears the stress 39 .y This word takes / z / Remember it sounds like a mosquito or a bee Place your fingers on your Adam´s apple and feel how it vibrates Hold it for a long time Once you have achieved the production of that sound start Prof Francisco Zabala 2011 shortening it until you have the ‘normal length’ Say: Busy Lizzy is dizzy 40 .S Your tongue should stick out between your teeth Tip You should try to imitate Spanish people when saying ‘zapato’ 41 .Y This sound is voiced Try producing it in isolation and place your fingers on your Adam’s apple Now say ‘shhhhhhhh’ Then add voice and notice how your vocal folds start vibrating You can also try imitating a posh Spanish R as when they say ‘yo’