Commonly Mispronounced Sounds by Chinese Native Speakers
Throughout the world, different countries have difficulty pronouncing other sounds from different languages. For many native English speakers learning Mandarin, pronouncing the âxâ, âshâ, âqâ, âchâ, and âzâ sounds are not easy obstacles to overcome. Based on my own experience it takes plenty of repetition to master how to pronounce each of these sounds. Chinese students have a similar problem when trying to pronounce certain sounds in English. The three sounds that come to mind are âthâ, âvâ and the difference between ârâ and âlâ.
Table of Contents
Replacing the /v/ sound with the /w/ sound
Replacing the /l/ sound with the /r/ sound
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jonathan A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Difficult Sounds
As a mentor for learning English in China, there have been many students that I have encountered that have difficulty pronouncing words such as âtheâ, âVietnamâ, âthatâ, âvetâ, and âworldâ. This problem arises from the fact that Mandarin (and their dialects) do not have words that include the sounds âthâ, âvâ and ârlâ. Most students try to pronounce the âthâ sound with an âsâ sound from either their language or Englishâs pronunciation. The best approach is demonstrating where the tongue should be located when pronouncing âthâ and comparing the âeâ pronunciation of Mandarinâs word âyeâ, which is a throat like pronunciation. Then provide them with plenty of attempts such as tongue twisters or role-playing to try and reproduce the âthâ sound before testing it out on words like âtheâ, âthatâ, and âtheseâ.
Also Read: 6 Awesome Sources for English Teaching Resources
Replacing the /v/ sound with the /w/ sound
When addressing the âvâ pronunciation the students tend to pronounce a âwâ sound because it is similar when pronouncing words in their language such as âweiâ and âwaiâ. They tend to lack the ability to produce that vibration you feel when putting the front two teeth on the lower lip. Majority of the time students will be able to replicate the âvâ sound but have a difficult time applying it when pronouncing words like âVietnamâ, âveterinarianâ, and âVictoriaâ. This, in turn, causes the words to be mispronounced as âWietnamâ, âweterinarianâ, and âWictoriaâ.
Replacing the /l/ sound with the /r/ sound
The last pronunciation, âlâ is mistaken for an ârâ when students attempt to learn to pronounce certain words in English. The difference in pronouncing the two is slight. When pronouncing an ârâ in Mandarin the tongue is curled up towards the roof of the mouth but does not actually contact the roof. Whereas the âlâ contacts the roof giving it a negligible different sound. This leads to words such as âtwirlâ and âworldâ being mispronounced. So learning to connect the tongue to the roof of the mouth in the middle of a word is not the easiest task at hand for a Chinese student learning English. If the students have difficulty acknowledging that their pronunciation is different from yours, then try recording the studentâs pronunciation and playing the recording back to them is another quality method to assist in their pronunciation.
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Over the year and a half that I have been in China, these are the three most frequent pronunciation problems that have put my mentoring skills to the test. Teaching the students how to pronounce certain sounds has been a character-building moment and helped me realize that not all students learn in the same fashion. Hopefully, with the help of this TEFL, I can create more effective methods to perfect the studentsâ pronunciation of âthâ, âvâ, and ârlâ.
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