Identifying and Correcting English Pronunciation Errors in Spanish Speakers: July 2021

Error 1. Change the /s/ for /z/ (For example, the word ‘’was’’ should have a /z/ sound, not an /s/ sound)

Why does this error occur?: It occurs when non-native speakers cannot distinguish the pronunciation of both letters /s/ and /z/ as they can sound the same and it is because both sounds are produced in the same part of the mouth. We can find some differences; The /s/ sound is voiceless, and the /z/ sound is voiced, this means that the /z/ sound is a voiced sound because the vocal cords vibrate when the sound is emitted, and the /s/ sound is a voiceless or non-vocal sound because the vocal cords do not vibrate when the sound is emitted. Instead, we use air to emit the sound.

Exercise 1: Practice the voiceless S sound and the voiced Z sound.

Instructions: Say these words out loud. The S sounds are in yellow, the Z sounds are in blue.

1. Is this house hers?

2. Six boys sat on the fence outside the store.

3. He was so sad last Sunday.

4. Sam is my son.

5. The seven dogs stay inside the house.

6. Please sit beside your friends.

7. The science quiz was easy.

8. The sun is so high in the sky.

9. He was so sad last Sunday.

10. The seven students took the first test for their driver's licenses.

Excercise 2: Identifying sounds.

Instructions: With a red pencil mark the words pronounced with /s/ and with a blue pencil mark the words pronounced with /z/.

Example: say- zip
1. Sister
2. Zoo
3. Friends
4. Sunday5. Sits
6. Science
7. Bags
8. His
9. Roses
10. Face

Error 2. The pronunciation of the morpheme -ed in the past and participles

Why does this error occur? Regular conjugations in English are very easy, the past simple and the past participle are formed simply by adding “-ed” to the end. However, you have to be careful with that ending, which is not always pronounced the same: It is pronounced / ɪd / when it is preceded by “t” or “d”, as in wanted, expected, needed, or awarded. When immediately preceded by any voiced vowel or consonant, it is / -d /, as in the cases of playing, dribbled, touched, or moved. Finally, when "-ed" is preceded by a hollow sound, it is pronounced as / t /, for example, I liked, hit, jumped or packed.

Excercise 1.

Instructions: Fill in the blanks and conjugate the verbs in the simple past tense:
Last night, my friends and I ____________ (decide) to go out. It was nice out, so we
_____________ (walk) downtown and _____________ (look) for a nice place to have drinks.
We all ____________ (settle) on a warm-looking and cozy pub, which ____________(ad-
vertize) a funk band playing that night. We ___________ (enter) and as we ___________ (glance) around, it _____________ (appear) that it was not too crowded. We ____________ (stay) anyway, and the concert was fantastic! We ____________ (dance) for hours and had a lot of fun!

Excercise 2.

Instructions: Classify the following verbs in the corresponding columns according to their final sound /d/, /t/ or /id/.

1. played 2. wanted 3. kissed 4. helped 5. asked

6. needed 7. loved 8. started 9. stayed 10. walked

/d/ /t/ /id/

loved walked started
_______ _________ _________

_______ _________ _________

Error 3. Pronunciation of the /th/ sound

Why does this error occur? As we know there are 2 sounds in English pronunciation / θ/ and / ð/ Both are fricatives and are made with the tongue between or behind the teeth. The first thing to do to help students overcome this bad pronunciation habit is to show them that they need to put their tongues between or behind their teeth and let a puff of air out of their mouth. In this way, they will be able to practice the pronunciation of this consonant.

Excercise 1. Say these words out loud

Instructions: Practice the voiced TH sound: ð

that

this

them

the

feather

weather

father

breathe

bathe

smooth

1.2 Practice the voiceless TH sound: θ

think

thin

thing

thanks

birthday

healthy

something

math

tooth

teeth

Excercise 2:

Instructions: practice pronouncing these sentences using the 2 th sounds, then mark the phonetic symbol above the word.

1. I thank my three brothers.

2. My birthday is on Thursday April third.

3. These three teeth hurt in my mouth.

4. They went with their mother to the theater.

5. There are thirteen thin women there.

6. She has a loose tooth in her mouth.

Error 4. Get confused with the sound /c/ and the sound /k/

Why does this error occur? In English the letter 'c' is commonly pronounced as a /k/ sound, that is one of the reasons why Spanish speakers get confused in some words with /c/ and /k/. The letter c that is pronounced as /k/ can come almost anywhere in the word and comes before the vowels a, o, and u. If the word needs to contain a short vowel sound before the /k/ sound.