Pronunciation studio. Spanish speaker´s English pronunciation errors
Lo peor:
1. Spanish uses 5 vowel sound positions in pronunciation, GB English uses 12 vowel sound positions – so this is a key area for Spanish speakers to learn. The most important area is making the right shape with the mouth, rather than focussing on the length of the sound:
2. The ‘h’ in little function words like HAVE, HE, HIS, HER, HIM is often silent in connected speech, but Spanish speakers may put it in.
3. Spanish speakers often de-voice (/d/=/t/, /b/=/p/, /v/=/f/) at the end of syllables, as the distinction is not made in Spanish.
4. The spelling ‘s’ is often pronounced as voiced /z/ at the end of syllables in English, Spanish speakers tend to always pronounce it as voiceless /s/
5. Spanish is a syllable-timed language so you stress every syllable, whereas English stress-time involves choosing (normally only one or two) certain syllables to stress, with everything else becoming weak and/or shorter.
6. GB English uses a wide pitch range and high falling tones are very common, whereas Spanish uses more rising tones.
Pronunciation. What is accent reduction?
Britain is full of regional accents, in fact it’s hard to travel more than 50 miles in any one direction without noticing some key changes. There’s Northern, West Country, Welsh, Scottish, Scouse, Geordie, Cockney to name a few, and you’ll find plenty of variations within these.
But unless you are an actor, or you have a keen interest in accents, you don’t want to learn to produce all of those as you learn English, so it’s important from a teaching and learning perspective to use a model for your studies. The problem is, which one?
The most famous accent is probably ‘The Queen’s English’ – many would say that the Queen speaks ‘correctly’, but the accent itself is very old-fashioned and somewhat idiosyncratic. You would certainly have heard something similar 50 years ago on the BBC, but it is rarely heard these days. It is generally referred to now as ‘Upper RP’ or CGB (Conspicuous General British), and whilst it is certainly fun to explore this kind of accent, few students genuinely want to emulate it.
Received Pronunciation, often abbreviated to RP, is an accent of spoken English. Unlike other UK accents, it's identified not so much with a particular region as with a particular social group, although it has connections with the accent of Southern England. RP is associated with educated speakers and formal speech. It has connotations of prestige and authority, but also of privilege and arrogance. Some people even think that the name 'Received Pronunciation' is a problem - if only some accents or pronunciations are 'received', then the implication is that others should be rejected or refused. (...) BBC
RP (Received Pronunciation), sometimes termed ‘BBC’ or ‘Oxford’ is reportedly spoken by 2% of the English population, largely in the South. Traditionally popular also with actors and presenters, it is somewhat ironically recognised as a ‘standard’ English accent.
All of these terms though are starting to feel very outdated. RP in particular has strong middle/upper class associations and the accent is very fixed; it doesn’t allow for modern influences, particularly in connected speech.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that you will not hear RP very often on the BBC anymore, so the need to update the terminology is clear. This article on the BBC website gives a good indication of the problems associated with the RP/BBC connotations.
GB English is the modern RP/BBC/Oxford. It’s a ‘standard’ model, but it is not old-fashioned. There are 2 main reasons we use the term instead of RP:
1. It gives us freedom to teach and learn a model that is more widely spoken now.
2. The term makes sense as an international alternative to General American.
The range of sounds and intonation in GB English is identical to RP, the key differences can occur in connected speech (particularly with /t/,/r/ & /l/) and some areas of sound selection. Effectively, RP is an old-fashioned, rigid form of GB, and you may see the terms used interchangeably, at least for the time being.
SPEAKING
Learning english. Intermediate. Unit-4. Session-1, INFORMAL.
gonna - going to
I'm gonna watch a DVD.
wanna - want toDo you wanna watch too?
whatcha - what are you
Whatcha doing?
dunno - don’t know
I dunno.
gotta - got to (or got a)
I've gotta go now.
hafta - have to
Do you hafta go already?
gimme - give me
Gimme a call tomorrow.
lemme - let me
Lemme know what you think.
kinda - kind of
She's kinda nice.
Lo peor:
1. Spanish uses 5 vowel sound positions in pronunciation, GB English uses 12 vowel sound positions – so this is a key area for Spanish speakers to learn. The most important area is making the right shape with the mouth, rather than focussing on the length of the sound:
Spanish has just one high front vowel [i] and Spanish speakers often use this vowel for both the /ɪ/ vowel in HIT and the /iː/ vowel in HEAT. One ‘i’ in English is normally the lower /ɪ/ vowel
Spanish speakers often make the vowels in HUT /hʌt/, HAT /hæt/ and HEART /hɑːt/ into the Spanish /a/ – they should be made in different positions in English.2. The ‘h’ in little function words like HAVE, HE, HIS, HER, HIM is often silent in connected speech, but Spanish speakers may put it in.
3. Spanish speakers often de-voice (/d/=/t/, /b/=/p/, /v/=/f/) at the end of syllables, as the distinction is not made in Spanish.
4. The spelling ‘s’ is often pronounced as voiced /z/ at the end of syllables in English, Spanish speakers tend to always pronounce it as voiceless /s/
5. Spanish is a syllable-timed language so you stress every syllable, whereas English stress-time involves choosing (normally only one or two) certain syllables to stress, with everything else becoming weak and/or shorter.
6. GB English uses a wide pitch range and high falling tones are very common, whereas Spanish uses more rising tones.
Pronunciation. What is accent reduction?
Britain is full of regional accents, in fact it’s hard to travel more than 50 miles in any one direction without noticing some key changes. There’s Northern, West Country, Welsh, Scottish, Scouse, Geordie, Cockney to name a few, and you’ll find plenty of variations within these.
But unless you are an actor, or you have a keen interest in accents, you don’t want to learn to produce all of those as you learn English, so it’s important from a teaching and learning perspective to use a model for your studies. The problem is, which one?
The most famous accent is probably ‘The Queen’s English’ – many would say that the Queen speaks ‘correctly’, but the accent itself is very old-fashioned and somewhat idiosyncratic. You would certainly have heard something similar 50 years ago on the BBC, but it is rarely heard these days. It is generally referred to now as ‘Upper RP’ or CGB (Conspicuous General British), and whilst it is certainly fun to explore this kind of accent, few students genuinely want to emulate it.
Received Pronunciation, often abbreviated to RP, is an accent of spoken English. Unlike other UK accents, it's identified not so much with a particular region as with a particular social group, although it has connections with the accent of Southern England. RP is associated with educated speakers and formal speech. It has connotations of prestige and authority, but also of privilege and arrogance. Some people even think that the name 'Received Pronunciation' is a problem - if only some accents or pronunciations are 'received', then the implication is that others should be rejected or refused. (...) BBC
RP (Received Pronunciation), sometimes termed ‘BBC’ or ‘Oxford’ is reportedly spoken by 2% of the English population, largely in the South. Traditionally popular also with actors and presenters, it is somewhat ironically recognised as a ‘standard’ English accent.
All of these terms though are starting to feel very outdated. RP in particular has strong middle/upper class associations and the accent is very fixed; it doesn’t allow for modern influences, particularly in connected speech.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that you will not hear RP very often on the BBC anymore, so the need to update the terminology is clear. This article on the BBC website gives a good indication of the problems associated with the RP/BBC connotations.
GB English is the modern RP/BBC/Oxford. It’s a ‘standard’ model, but it is not old-fashioned. There are 2 main reasons we use the term instead of RP:
1. It gives us freedom to teach and learn a model that is more widely spoken now.
2. The term makes sense as an international alternative to General American.
The range of sounds and intonation in GB English is identical to RP, the key differences can occur in connected speech (particularly with /t/,/r/ & /l/) and some areas of sound selection. Effectively, RP is an old-fashioned, rigid form of GB, and you may see the terms used interchangeably, at least for the time being.
SPEAKING
Learning english. Intermediate. Unit-4. Session-1, INFORMAL.
Vocabulary points to take away
Spoken short forms are ways of saying phrases quickly in informal situations. Some common examples are:gonna - going to
I'm gonna watch a DVD.
wanna - want toDo you wanna watch too?
whatcha - what are you
Whatcha doing?
dunno - don’t know
I dunno.
gotta - got to (or got a)
I've gotta go now.
hafta - have to
Do you hafta go already?
gimme - give me
Gimme a call tomorrow.
lemme - let me
Lemme know what you think.
kinda - kind of
She's kinda nice.
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