English Pronunciation Errors made by Spanish native speakers

 Error #1: The consonant "Z" is pronounced as an "S". 

Explanation what this error ocours: This error ocour when the students are learning a second language can not distinguish the pronunciation of both consonants, these consonants can sound the same and it is because both sounds are produced in the same place of the mouth. There are some differences. The /s/ sound is a voiceless sound because the vocal cards do not vibrate, and the /z/ sound is a voiced sound because the vocal cords vibrate when you make the sound. 

Exercise 1

Instruction: Practice the voiceless and voiced sounds with the following sentences and words. the S sounds are in pink and the Z sounds are in green. 

1) Sandy is my sister. 

2) Business

3) Scientists

4) Zebra 

5) Six boys and girls sat on the fence outside the store. 

6) Zippers 

7) Practice 

8) Cats 

9) Buzz

10) Roses 

Exercise 2 

Instruction: In the follow words you will use red color to mark the words that are pronounced with /s/ and you will use purple color to mark the words that are pronounced with /z/.

1) Miss

2) Bounce

3) Saturday

4) Noisiest

5) Descend

6) Oxygen 

7) Because

8) Wednesday

9) Busy

10) Dozen

Error #2 The /th/ consonant sound is substituted with /t/ or /d/. 

Explanation why this error occurs: This error occurs because the Spanish speakers do not have the TH consonant sound in their language, they tend to keep the tongue inside for the words with TH, sometimes will result in pronouncing different words the same. Examples: The /th/ in "Thanks" (Voiceless) will be replaced with /t/ and the word will sound like "Tanks". The /th/ in "They" (voiced) will be replaced with /d/ and the word will be sound like "day". 

Exercise: 1

Instruction: Read the following text and identifying how many voiceless and voiced sound there are. 

 

Mother's Day Gifts

It was Mother's day. I did not have a gift for my mother. Neither did my brother. So we went to my father and asked him if he would take us to the store to look for a gift. He said he hadn't bothered to get one yet either so we all went in the car together.

The weather was bad and the smog in the city made it hard to breathe. But in the end our trip was worth it because we found the most perfect gifts for mother.

There were some salts to help you bathe, some lotion for smooth skin, and some feather pillows to help you relax. All of those sounded very soothing to me.

My brother found some rubber, squishy toys. I told him they were for babies who are teething.

My father found a lathe and a leather belt for mother. I told him that she would absolutely loathe them. They trusted me and put their gifts back. They helped me buy the soothing gifts I found and we drove home together.

I was happy because my mother was going to love them much better than the gifts my father and brother had chosen. And I learned something. People often pick out what they want for themselves instead of thinking of what the other person would want. Don't you think that's silly?

Exercise 2

Instruction: Write a short paragraph using the following "th" word then in class you will come to the front to read the paragraph to classmates using the good pronunciation. 

theater, healthy, athlete, month, thinner, Thursday, think, north, something, marathon, birthday, thankful.

Error #3: The /v/ consonant is pronounced as /b/. 

Explanation why this error occurs: In Spanish, there is no phonetic distinction between V and B  because both consonants are bilabials, so Spanish speakers confused the pronunciation of these two consonants. Mispronunciation of these sounds can cause some confusion. For example, the word ‘very’ sounds more like ‘berry’, ‘van’ sounds like ‘ban’.The difference between these two sounds is the V is a fricative and to pronounce it, the bottom lip has to touch the top teeth, and the B is plosive, both lips close and touch each other.

Exercise #1: The Clever Parrot
                        
                               

Instructions:

•On the board, write some minimal pairs and drill pronunciation. If possible, listen to all the students individually pronouncing a set of minimal pairs.

 •Tell students you are going to point to one of the words on the board and pronounce it. They should only repeat after you only if they think the pronunciation is correct. If they think you are mispronouncing the word, i.e. pronouncing a /b/ when it should be a /v/, they should remain silent.

 •Repeat and reinforce the correct pronunciation of all the words on the board.

Exercise #2: Creating your own tongue twister 

Instructions:  

• Ask students to write a list of 10 words containing either “b” or “v”. Encourage them to write nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Give them about 2 minutes for this task.

• Now, you can do this activity in two ways: you can write their words on the board or you can ask them to use  Wooclap or Mentimeter and effortlessly you will get a very nice word cloud in under 1 minute.

• Once their words are displayed, ask students to write their own tongue twisters with some of the words on the word cloud. Give them 2-3 minutes and then ask them to write their sentence on a slip of paper. 

•Collect all the slips and put them on the walls of the class; ask studen．ts to stand up and gallery walk in pairs trying to read their partner’s tongue twisters. Lots of fun guaranteed!

Example: Bob’s beautiful vase has been visited by visitors vaccinated with available vaccines.

Error #4: Mispronunciation of the ¨h¨sound. 

Explanation why this error occurs:  This happens normally when Spanish speakers omit the ¨h¨when it should be pronounced. In Spanish the letter ¨H¨is silent, but in English is generally pronounced, is soft, and sounds like a whisper. Moreover, when speakers mispronounce the H, they create a velar fricative instead (just like the ‘j’ sound in ‘jalapeno’).

Exercise #1

Instructions:  
• Pronounce and repeat the following 10 words.

•Try holding a piece of paper in front of your mouth when you practice these words. Your breath should lightly move the paper when you make the H sound.

1.) hand

2.) hug

3.) hurry

4.) his

5.) heavy

6.) hello

7.) handsome

8.) whose

9.) whole

10.) whom

Exercise #2

Instructions:

• In pairs, students are going to do a conversation with the following 10 sentences that have the ¨h¨ consonant sound. 

• Once the students have finished making their conversations, each pair will go in front of the class to make the conversation. 

• If a student mispronounces the h in some sentences, one student in the classroom, will raise his or her hand to correct the mistake. 

• Finally, the student who makes the mistake, will repeat the sentences again. 

1.) How are you?

2.) Who has red hair?

3.) Whose home is high on the hill?

4.) He is here.

6.) Hurry uphill to the house.

7.) He is a happy, handsome man.

8.) Reheat the whole hamburger, so it is hot for her.

9.) Here is her doghouse. It is heavy.

10) Help! Can you hear him?

References:

Brenda. (November 11, 2020). 6 pronunciation mistakes Spanish speakers make in English and how to fix them. Oxford house language courses. https://oxfordhousebcn.com/en/6-pronunciation-mistakes-spanish-speakers-make-in-english-and-how-to-fix-them/

Khansir, A. (May, 2012). Error Analysis and second language acquisition. Academy publisher.https://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol02/05/22.pdf

Cabal, C. (April 06, 2021). 7 Activities and Ideas to Practise B and V sounds. Blog of Cristina.https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=14530

 

English, R. l. (n.d.). Really learn English. Retrieved from Really learn English: https://www.really-learn-english.com/english-pronunciation-lesson-25-s-and-z-sounds.html

 Home speech home. (n.d). 130 voicedTH words, phrases, sentences, and reading passages. from home Speech Home. https://www.home-speech-home.com/voiced-th-words.html