Every English teacher nightmare: Pronunciation errors in Spanish-speaking learners of English

By 

Livan David Soriano Ortega-20171001085

Oscar Humberto Mendoza Carias-20151021866

Yeimy Walesca Herrera Cruz-20181002224

Before starting to discuss some of the problems that English learners could face in their learning journey, we would like to share with you some important information that is vital to understand the context of why we are creating a blog to address pronunciation errors in Spanish speakers. Firstly, it is important to know the technique called Error Analysis and it’s background history. Error Analysis is used to spot, categorize and explain all the errors made by students who are learning English as a second or foreign language. It first became visible in the 1960s to substitute the job that contrastive analysis couldn’t do; to account all the errors a learner of English could do. Knowing this there was a necessity to solve this problem because it was, and still being viewed in language learning as the result of not accurate use of the phonetic or grammatical rules that archived in our brains. So errors or the little nightmares of every English teacher, need to be seen as the proves of the alive process of learning a new language. Every time they occur, learning is occurring too, so don't be afraid of them. I know it is easy to say that we need to take errors as not a big deal, I'm not trying to say they are not a big deal, surely they are, but if you learn how to deal with them in a better way using some techniques, your job will be easier in the future. The first technique I am going to share with you is Hinting/Prompting that basically to give a clue with something the student should know to make it easy to guess the correct answer of a made error. The second technique I recommend to you that will make your students aware of their own mistakes is Recording On Tape because some of the assignments the technique requires from them is to gather all the problems of pronunciation they find in their own recordings. And the last technique that will be an incredible source of knowledge and relief for all your student is Making Notes of Common Errors and then give a master class in how to avoid them in the future. With this technique your students won't feel “personally attacked” because you won't mention who did any error. Remember to be sportive every time you correct any error because as teachers the worst thing we can do is to discourage our students in their learning process. Now let’s see some of the errors we have chosen that we consider are commonly made by Spanish-speaker students of English.

Error number 1: Problems identifying [i] and [ɪ] sounds in words.

Reason of why this problem occurs: As Spanish speakers, in our alphabet we only have one sound for each of the five vowels. In contrast to English that are several sounds even just for one vowel. This brings us to this first error in which we cannot identify easily these two sounds because of their similarity.

First exercise to practice.

In couples, you will have a chart with different audios of minimal pair words. You have to choose if the word contains either [i] or [ɪ] sound. To help you to choose the correct option, pronounce the word aloud mimicking what you heard in the audio.

#	Minimal pairs	Audio	✓	✓
1	bid/bead	https://voca.ro/15Tt4vn7L3Jw
2	chick/cheek	https://voca.ro/1dkJGksFZDpm
3	grid/greed	https://voca.ro/1hP2lAOrD1Zd
4	fill/feel	https://voca.ro/11I7drbv830j
5	fit/feet	https://voca.ro/1mLAPtAF2sCO
6	still/steal	https://voca.ro/18GtSufxpas7
7	bit/beat	https://voca.ro/1hhhlaYaBeYS
8	hid/heed	https://voca.ro/19VcTxstjnmi
9	knit/neat	https://voca.ro/1oHk6ySZ8ENr
10	pick/peek	https://voca.ro/1g3yWMDjMmgL

Answers check for teachers: bid/bead, chick/cheek, grid/greed, fill/feel, fit/feet, still/steal, bit/beat, hid/heed, knit/neat, pick/peek.

Second exercise to practice.

Read the sentences out loud to practice [i] and [ɪ] sounds. Circle the words in bold with [i] sound in blue and the words with [ɪ] sound in yellow. (Extra points for the person who identify the words that have one of these sounds, but it is not in bold)

#	Sentences
1	Lee has a reason for leaving. [i]
2	This is it. [ɪ]
3	See what I mean? [i]
4	I will sit in a minute. [ɪ]
5	Steven eats cream cheese. [i]
6	Is the building finished?  [ɪ]
7	A friend in need is a friend indeed. [i]
8	What is it? [ɪ]
9	They reached a peace agreement. [i]
10	My little sister is timid. [ɪ]

Answers check for teachers: (Extra points exercise) sentence 4: sit. Sentence 9: peace.

Error number 2: The schwa vowel.

Reason of why this problem occurs: In Spanish this sounds doesn't exist, there is not any sound as short the /ə/ sound, that is why it is hard for Spanish speakers to perceive or utter this sound. 

First exercise to practice.

1. You have ten words containing the /ə/ sound. Read them out loud with the help of your teacher.  

2. Arrange all the words in this chart following the vowel order then read the words again to confirm that although the /ə/ sound is represented with different vowels, the sound is the same.

#	vowel	words
1	a
2	a
3	e
4	e
5	i
6	i
7	o
8	o
9	u
10	u

Second exercise to practice.

In couples, you will have ten words and ten audios to help you pronounce the words correctly. One of you will read the words and the another one have to identify where is the /ə/ sound in the words, then write the words in the second chart circling the /ə/ vowel. The /ə/ vowel can be at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word. 

Person 1 (the one who will read and say the words)

#	Words	Audios
1	Agony	https://voca.ro/1pzoz1CKd6zD
2	Holiday	https://voca.ro/15M7GpRAwVGO
3	Amaze	https://voca.ro/1azBTT6HRenq
4	Sofa	https://voca.ro/18E6slrJRWe7
5	Contain	https://voca.ro/1lWy4qrABQbP
6	Suppose	https://voca.ro/1nHyKuqTeLlO
7	Circus	https://voca.ro/1hO0KkrEPYtK
8	Along	https://voca.ro/17HYIGAouCG8
9	Company	https://voca.ro/15jQf4B3jGlh
10	Soda	https://voca.ro/11XSEtFhk7du

Person 2 (the one who will arrange the words)

Schwa at the beginning	Schwa in the middle	Schwa at the end

Answers check for teachers: Agony, Holiday, Amaze, Sofa, Contain, Suppose, Circus, Along, Company, Soda. 

Error number 3: Stress within the word.

Reason of why this problem occurs: This error occurs because, In the Spanish language, we have rules of how to accentuate words, we usually write an accent mark above the stressed syllable. In English there are no accentuation marks to guide our pronunciation of a word, for that reason, there are difficulties when trying to accentuate the syllables correctly.

First exercise

Instructions:

In the following table, there are 3 different stress patterns. With the help of the teacher repeat each word and emphasize the stressed syllable.

Stress on the first syllable	Stress on the second syllable	Stress on the third syllable
Túesday	mysélf	recomménd
éver	outdóne	guarantée
bédroom	aróund	overlóok
ápple	compléte	unrealístic
séventy	himsélf	fourtéen
téacher	emplóyer	underséa
stráwberry	exámine	reassúre
sálary	translátion	reassért
táble	accéptance	undertáke
bróther	depéndency	readdréss

Second exercise

Instructions:

1. Listen to the audio and repeat each of the following words.

#	Word	Audio
1	policeman	https://voca.ro/1g1WQstUQS7J
2	December	https://voca.ro/1lXAlYLgHTi7
3	elephant	https://voca.ro/1leCycOpURj0
4	afternoon	https://voca.ro/19UwwYnhZ9wN
5	gasoline	https://voca.ro/12sX2UUQc31l
6	yesterday	https://voca.ro/1m7eSJrkIGPY
7	seventeen	https://voca.ro/14KenvWGSvRl
8	tomorrow	https://voca.ro/1jc4NIv6ZrNx
9	energy	https://voca.ro/1owDumbw4AKG
10	evidence	https://voca.ro/16bnpK3Cb0Ch

2. Now group the words according to their stress patterns.

Stress on first syllable
Stress on second syllable
Stress on third syllable

Answers check for teachers: 

First syllable: élephant, yésterday, énergy, évidence.

Second syllable: políceman, Decémber, tomórrow.

Third syllable: afternóon, gasolíne, seventéen.

Error number 4: Incorrect use of /θ/ and /ð/ sounds.

Reason of why this problem occurs: In Spanish we don't have these two sounds. And the features that make them special are that the sound /ð/ is made by using vocal cords (voiced sound), while the sound /θ/ is not involved with the vocal cords (voiceless sound).
If you put your hand on your throat and say "the", you should feel a vibration but if you hold your hand in the same place and say the word "think" there should be no vibration.

First exercise

In pairs, practice the pronunciation of the words in the chart then choose the correct sound of each word. The sounds can be "θ" or “ð” so be careful. 

#	Words	Voiceless sound	Voiced sound
1	The	θ	ð
2	Brother	θ	ð
3	Math	θ	ð
4	Other	θ	ð
5	Think	θ	ð
6	Teeth	θ	ð
7	Birthday	θ	ð
8	This	θ	ð
9	Both	θ	ð
10	They	θ	ð

Answers check for teachers: The (ð), Brother (ð), Math (θ), Other (ð), think (θ), teeth (θ), birthday (θ), this (ð), both (θ), they (ð).

Second exercise

Read and listen each sentence in the chart and choose if the word in bold has /θ/ or /ð/ sound. 

#	Sentence	Audio	θ or ð
1	May is my favorite month.	https://voca.ro/10241qhNqz7g
2	There were more than a thousand people.	https://voca.ro/1dBl5cSuovav
3	I want to go to the Netherlands.	https://voca.ro/1WXfonbPvfQP
4	Let's take another picture.	https://voca.ro/1dpB9W4QMCHn
5	There is nothing to do.	https://voca.ro/1kUwqAkWOdvp
6	Do you have a brother?	https://voca.ro/18K39RekDOm6
7	Thanks for helping me.	https://voca.ro/1bOOyvzkikGa
8	He lives in the north.	https://voca.ro/13NuPpEBgpVA
9	He bought a new leather jacket.	https://voca.ro/1bU1PhWxJb1l
10	This song has a good rhythm.	https://voca.ro/16JSImW1MCLA

Answers check for teachers: sentence 1 (θ), sentence 2 (θ), sentence 3 (ð), sentence 4 (ð), sentence 5 (θ), sentence 6 (ð), sentence 7(θ), sentence 8 (θ), sentence 9 (ð), sentence 10 (ð).

Reflections What I learned of identifying errors is that there are many of them that are very subtle and hard to catch when you are learning English, specially in early stages, so as a future teacher I want to be a facilitator of knowledge and help my students as much as possible to let them know these basic but tremendously important phonetic skills they have to learn to manage better the ability to be understood. Now that I had the experience detecting common errors of pronunciation made by Spanish-speaker learners, I feel more than ready to work with them in the future, and also I will be able to design fun and diverse activities to deal in a better way to these type problems that can be tedious for many students. For me the main strength of this project is that we can relate with all these errors because we had to experience them in the past, also for this reason I believe we can be more empathic and use our own experience to deal with these errors as same as we did. In the process of developing this project, I practiced some things I learned that I did not remember very well. It was what I liked the most about this project. Finally, what I found in my researching was that the majority of the problems a Spanish-speaker learner could face are related with sounds that don't exist in our language, so it is vital to teach phonetics since the beginning of the journey of every learner to make their process a lot easier because they will know the answer of many doubts they could have.

By: Livan Soriano

When we learn a second language it is normal for us to make mistakes when pronouncing the words, our native language has little influence since we usually confuse the sounds or do not use the correct accent. Doing this job, I realized that there is a wide variety of pronunciation errors of which I was not aware. It is important to learn how to correct them and avoid repeating them. I think the most interesting mistake is "stress within the word" because the correct use of the accent is essential to have good pronunciation. In English there are no rules of accentuation for that’s reason it is difficult for Spanish speakers to identify which syllables have an accent. It is important to practice our accent a lot, to correct this error. As a future teacher, I will work more on my pronunciation, I hope to improve my accent and help my future students correct their pronunciation mistakes. I really enjoyed doing this job, and thanks to that I understood the pronunciation error better and how to correct them.

By: Yeimy Herrera

As a Spanish speaker I think it is more difficult to find errors, and we have to be more careful because many sounds of English do not exist in Spanish, and because of that we think that many errors are correct, and as a student, in this practice I realized that it is necessary to be focused and have patience, even to perform exercises is not easy, since you need to find the right point where the student is able to develop. I always enjoy a new project, because I always learn something new. Facing something new implies working in the unknown, which always brings difficulties. As Spanish speakers we have many mistakes in our language, imagine in another language, and yes, it is difficult to detect errors and do exercises for students, but that is why we strive every day to be better and to be able to share what we learn, that’s what it is all about, sharing our knowledge so that new generations do not have our problems.

By: Oscar Mendoza

References

Dale, P., & Poms, L. (2003a). English Pronunciation Made Simple Audio CDs (4) (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.

Nasser, M., & Muqbel, H. (n.d.). Error Analysis. Ijrar.com. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from http://ijrar.com/upload_issue/ijrar_issue_20542535.pdf

Gumbaridze, J. (2013). Error correction in EFL speaking classrooms. Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1660–1663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.237

Case, A., & Taylor, J. (n.d.). Minimal pair /ɪ/ and /i:/. Englishclub.com. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs-i-ee.php

Diccionario Cambridge Inglés y Tesauro gratuitos. (n.d.). Cambridge.org. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/

Ldoce. (2003). Longman.

Como pronunciar el sonido TH en Inglés. (2017, October 3). Aprender Ingles Americano. https://www.aprenderinglesamericano.com/portfolio-items/como-pronunciar-el-sonido-th-en-ingles/

No title. (n.d.). Engoo.Es. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://engoo.es/app/lessons/consonants-%CE%B8-%C3%B0/qv87uCpxEeeSXmdrIWqFFA