Phonetic Correction Techniques for minimizing the most relevant pronunciation

mistakes in Spanish speaking students

The compiler has chosen the correction techniques for the pronunciation mistakes of
the sounds that do not happen in Spanish phonetic system of the Cuban Version.
Sound Correction Techniques
/ɪ/ o To produce a more relaxed sound and to contrast its short duration
with /i/.
o To place the sound between plosive or fricative consonants to
increase the tenseness of the vowel: ticket, kitchen, sit.
o To place the sound between nasal consonants which help in the
production of its lax aspect.
o To make the students repeat segments with falling intonation,
rapid rhythm, and placing the sound /I/ between nasal consonants; e.g.
Wait a minute /weɪt ə mɪnɪt/; I like mince /aɪ laɪk mɪns/.
o To produce the sound between a bilabial plosive and a velar
plosive consonant; e.g .It’s a big pig / ɪts ə bɪg pɪg/; Pick it /pɪk ɪt/.
o To exaggerate the pronunciation toward / ɛ /: e.g.. Tim /t ɛ m/;
Sit down /sɛt daʊn/.
/ɛ/ o To emphasize on the degree of relaxation of the muscles of the face
and on the spreading of the lips
/æ/ To obtain more tenseness of the muscles of the face and a longer duration
of the sound, and to articulate toward the front, making it closer, this
sound may occur:
o After bilabial and velar consonants, pad /pæd/, catch /kætʃ /.
o Between alveolar sounds which contribute to its close articulation;
e.g. Sally /sælɪ /, Italian/ ɪ ’tæljən/.
o To place the sound between nasal sounds which do not contribute
to its tense aspect; e.g. man /mæn/, handbag/’hændbæg/.
o Have the students repeat segments with rising intonation,
lengthening the duration of the sound, and placing it in accented
syllables; e.g. Is he Italian? / ɪ z ɪ ɪtæææljən / Thank you,Mr. Jackson. /
θæŋkjʊ mɪstɚ dʒæksn /
o Have the students repeat words that contain the sound after /j / or
 between alveolar consonants.e.g. Hi, Alice, Hi, Sally.
o The teacher should make the students repeat segments
exaggerating the sound toward /a /, lengthening its duration, placing it
after a bilabial sound and producing it with some degree of nasalization;
e.g. is that you, Pat? /lzæææt jʊpæææt/.
/ə ɚ/ o The sounds are always unstressed. One useful exercise demands
that the student should sit and relax his body and produce the sound
relaxedly, first without /r/ coloring and the other with /r/ coloring.
o Have the students produce both sounds in words. E.g. alone / ə
‘lɔʊn/, suppose /sə ‘pɔʊs/. Prepare a set of words that illustrate the
different phoneme-grapheme correspondences of both sounds.
/ɝ/ o Insist upon the spreading of the lips and on lip rounding for /r/
production.
o Prepare a set of words that illustrate the different phoneme-
grapheme correspondences of the sound.
/ ʌ/ o The objective is to obtain more relaxation, to emphasize the short
duration of the sound and the neutral position of the lips.
o The sound may occur between nasals which contribute to its lax
aspect; e.g. number / ’n ʌmb ɚ /.
o Have the class produce the sound between plosives which do not
contribute to its lax aspect; e.g. cup /k ʌ p/, dust /d ʌ st/.
o To relax the sound and reduce its duration, the teacher should
make the students repeat segments with falling intonation, rapid rhythm,
and placing the sound between nasals e.g. Murn /m ʌ m/, nun /n
ʌn/, /sʌn/.
o The teacher should make the students repeat segments in which the
sound occurs after a velar consonant, exaggerating the sound in the
direction of /a/;e.g. Give me a cup /gv ɪv m ɪ ə kap/.
/ʊ/ o The objective is to obtain a laxer sound, to point out the low
frequencies and short duration of / ʊ /.
o In order to make the sound laxer and reduce its duration, the teacher
should make the students repeat segments with falling intonation, rapid
rhythm, and placing the vowel sound in unaccented position; e.g. It’s
 good to see you. / ɪ tsgʊdt ə si jʊ /; They are good friends. / ðɝgʊd
frɛndz/.
o The teacher should make the students repeat segments exaggerating
the pronunciation of /U/ toward the direction of / ɪ /; e.g. Look at this /l
ɪ k ə t ð ɪ s/; It’s good. / ɪ tsg ɪ d/
/ɑ/ o The professor should emphasize on the backward production of
the sound and tell the students that they should produce an / ɔ / sound
by placing the lips to the position of /a/.
/p, b, k,  The main difficulty that the students have when producing these
g, t, d,/ sounds lies on the word final position where the students try to omit
them. The class should repeat a set of words that contain the sounds in
word final position; as in, stop, back, present, etc, and then go back to the
words that they mispronounce.
/s /  The main difficulty that the students have when producing the
sound lies on the word initial and final positions. In the first case, the
students try to modify the sound production by inserting a / ə / before
the /s/. To avoid this mistake the students should repeat words or short
phrases that depict the sound in initial position as in: She speaks Spanish
slowly. Or in words like: skip, special, steak. The same procedure can be
applied when the students try to omit it. The class should repeat a set of
words that contain the sound in word final position or in short phrases; as
in, stops, shops, maps, the lawyers´ seats, Alice stays sad, etc, and then go
back to the words that they mispronounce.
 A very frequent practical technique consists on lengthening all
sibilant sounds either in word initial or final positions
/ tʃ/  The students´ main difficulty lies on the fact that they substitute
the sound in word final position for the sound /ʃ/.
 The teacher should aim at making the students produce a tenser
sound.
 The students should repeat words that contain the sound in word
initial position to reinforce the tenseness of the sound.
 The students should repeat words that contain the sound in word
final position to reinforce the laxness of the sound without
 producing /ʃ/.
 The teacher should make the students repeat segments in which
the sound appears in a rising intonation pattern. E.g. Is she French? / ɪ ʃ
ɪfr ɛn tʃ/.
 To exaggerate the sound as in Catch it. Thank you very much.

/ dʒ /  The students try to produce the / ʃ / sound.

 The students must repeat words that contain the sound in the three
word positions to favour the tension and the friction of the sound. What`s
your job? Norwegian.
/ʃ/  The students tend to produce /tʃ/ which is a very tense sound.
The objective is to obtain less tension, to emphasize its fricative aspect.
 Place the sound in intervocalic position and in final position, which
favor its lesser tension, e.g. My shirt is blue; Spanish , Danish, Swedish.
 Elongate the production of the sound in falling intonation.
Example, Is she Swedish?

/ʒ/  The students tend to produce / tʃ, ʃ, s / in medial and final

positions. The teacher should make the student prolong the constriction
of / ʒ / so as to make them notice where the mistake is.
 The students can prolong the sound to hear the fricative character
of it and then avoid plosionE.
/f, v /  The students exchange the production of those sounds in the word
have.
 The teacher should make the students repeat by elongating the
sound /v/in words that contain it.
 The teacher should contrast both sounds in pairs of words as in
half and have or halves.
 To avoid the production of /b/, the students must elongate the
/v/ sound and then repeat words that contain /v/ in initial and medial
word positions.
/z/  The students tend to produce /s/.
 To avoid misproduction, the students must either elongate the
 sound, repeat words that contain it in the three word positions, or
contrast it with /s/ in paired words as: soon :: zoom, sip :: zip, etc, to
emphasize the voicing of the sound.
/l/  The students tend to produce a clear /l/ where a dark one is
needed
 The teacher should emphasize the fact that the /l/ of people and
bubble /pipl/ , /b ʌ bl/ is almost imperceptible to the ear.
 The students should repeat words that contain the sound.
/r/  The objective is to produce the retroflex with less tension and
avoid the Spanish interference by curling back the apex of the tongue.
 It is recommended to repeat words in which the sound occurs in
medial and final positions. The initial position does not favour the
laxness of the sound
 The teacher can exaggerate the lip rounding so as to produce /w/
before /r/, e.g. You are right.
/m/ In final position the students tend to produce /ŋ /. The objective is to
emphasize the bilabial articulation of/ m /. Sound /m/ occurs in initial
and medial positions, which favor its bilabial articulation, e. g. mother,
umbrella, which is not so in final position. e. g. Come here, please! The
students tend to say /k ɔ ŋ hj ɚ /. its articulation more difficult, e. g. The
articulation of the sound turns difficult in word final position as in I want
some; At what time? To emphasize the bilabial articulation of/m/, the
teacher should make the students repeat segments in which /m/ appears
in an intervocalic position. e. g. I want some of those.
/J/ The main objective is to emphasize the laxness of the sound. The teacher
should place the sound in intervocalic position, e.g. Oh, yes. How are
you?
The students` great difficulty is the substitution of the sound for / dʒ /.
The students should contrast the sounds /i/ and /j/, or /j/ and / dʒ/.

/w/ The objective is to emphasize the lax aspect and the bilabial elements
of /w/. Sound /w/ occurs in initial position, which does not favor its
laxness, example: We are on the bridge; and in intervocalic position,
 which favors its lax aspect, example: I want a glass of milk. Very well,
thank you. To favor de laxness of /w/, the teacher should place the
sound in intervocalic position. Example: Very well or emphasize the
bilabial element.

MOST COMMON MISTAKES OF SPANISH SPEAKERS IN PRODUCING

ENGLISH PROSODIC FEATURES
 
The close relation between stress and vowel quality in English is alien to Spanish
speakers. Hence, they tend to produce all vowels —stressed as well as unstressed—
with a very clear timbre (that is, without reduction). Besides, our Spanish students
tend to produce primary stresses in the last two syllables (‘following the tradition of
Romance languages), instead of accenting —especially nouns of Anglo-Saxon origin
— at the beginning of words.
In relation to pauses, the contrast existing in English in expressions like blackbird
and black + bird does not exist in Spanish .
Most intonation patterns in Spanish use either rising or sustained types, and even
when falling intonation is used it is not as marked as in English. As a consequence,
Spanish speakers have the tendency to sound insecure and not giving the sense of
finality when making statements. Specifically, when addressing a person directly
they use falling intonation which sounds impolite. Another source of interference is
due to differences in rhythm. In Spanish, rhythm is determined by the amount of
syllables; while in English it is determined by the amount of stressed syllables that
tend to recur at regular intervals of time. Thus, Spanish speakers stress all syllables,
affecting the overall pattern of rhythm and the relationship between stress and
vowel reduction.
 
TECHNIQUES OF CORRECTION
 
The understanding of the nature of English stress must be of great help in stressing
words on the right syllables. The rules we have hinted at above constitute a fairly
good guidance. Also, the reduction of vowels can be obtained by tapping the
rhythm for students, and controlling the speed of an utterance, faster to vowel
reduction and slower for producing clear vowels.
Intonation types must be explained emphasizing the point of contrast with Spanish.
The melody can be either sung out, with la la la’s, or whistled.
General intonation types are not difficult to get since intonation (dependent on the
fundamental frequency of vibration of the vocal cords) is transmitted through low
frequencies to which the human ear is very sensitive. So, apart from me simple
techniques mentioned above, the only necessary pre-requisite to success is a good
model (preferably tape-recordings with native voices) and constant practice. Of
course, the students must be taught the psychological nature of prosodic elements
in English as well as their structural and contextual constraints.
CORRECTION TECHNIQUES FOR STRESS
The stress can be corrected by tapping the accent on the student s arm or on the
table. The teacher should tap as many times as many stresses that there are in the
word or phrase. To mark the types of stress on the student` s arm, the teacher can
show different degrees of energy while tapping or quantify; one tap for the main
stress, two taps for the secondary, a weak tap for the weak stress, and a sustained
tap for the tertiary stress.

This list of symbols can be copied and reproduced freely

ð ŋ ʃ θ ʒ æ ɑ ə ɚ ɜ ɛ ɝ ɪ ɒ ɔ ʊ ʊ̈ ʌ ʒ ŋ ɔ ɪ dʒ tʃ, ð,
ɪtsˈdɪfəkəltəgɛtɪt
meɪbəjʊɚəvðəseɪmaɪnd
knsʌtʃətrʌblsəmɛksɚsæsɪsnɒtsɔʊhɑrdtəænsɚ
hɑʊkənɪtbɪ