5 Vowel Sounds to Take Care of:
Tips
for New Pronunciation Teachers
Since I mostly work with Spanish-speaking EFL learners,
there are five vowel sounds they strive hard to master: Lax “i,” epsilon,
diagraph, schwa, and Latin “a.” Let’s compare / contrast these sounds with
their Spanish “counterparts” to find ways to help pronunciation students to
accurate produce these phonemes.
u Lax “i.” The first sound students have trouble with
is the lax “i.” if the Spanish /i/-sound is compared to the lax /ɪ/-sound in
English, the first important feature is the tenseness present in the Spanish
vowel. Actually the /i/-sound is much tenser than the English /ɪ/. That is,
that the /i/-sound is quite similar to the tense /iy/ occurring in English
dialects. /ɪ/ is not a phoneme or allophone in standard Spanish. We can find /ɪ/
as an allophonic difference among female vernacular Nicaraguan Spanish
speakers.
N TIP for teachers: Help students get rid of tenseness in their
jaw muscles. By relaxing their muscles they can produce lax “i" sounds
quite accurately. But if tension is present, it will sound like /i/ or /iy/
vowel sounds.
v Epsilon. The
second sound that gives students a hard time in Spanish-speaking contexts where
EFL is taught is the /ɛ/ or epsilon. The /ɛ/-vowel sound is also a lax sound in
English, and this implies the absence of tension in one’s muscles. The Spanish
/e/ is very tense if compared to /ɛ/, which is not even a standard allophone in
Spanish. Some Peruvian indigenous inhabitants, for instance, do include an
epsilon in their vowel repertoire when speaking in Spanish, but that is related
to the influence Kechwa, their mother tongue, has over their Spanish as a
second language.
N TIP for teachers: As
in the /ɪ/-sound in English, the student must learn to relax their jaw muscles
when pronouncing /ɛ/. Any sort of tenseness in an epsilon pronunciation will
make the /e/-vowel sound like it does in Spanish
w Diagraph. A third sound Spanish speakers have trouble
with is the /æ/-vowel sound. Many speakers confuse this vowel phoneme with the
Spanish vowel /ɐ/ (like in “nada”). The English diagraph has a “smiling
effect” that the Spanish /ɐ/ does not have: English native speakers do “smile”
a bit when pronouncing /æ/. The diagraph is a vowel phoneme that is not present
in Spanish dialects, but it can be found in French dialects.
N TIP for teachers: As with any new sound, which is not part of
the students’ vowel repertoire, model it for students. If possible, by means of
a mouth picture, have students stand in front of a mirror so they can see how
their mouth needs to be shaped to fully produce the /æ/ sound in English.
x The Schwa. Several languages, such as French, include /ʌ/
(/ǝ/ in some manuals) or schwa vowel allophones; unfortunately, Spanish is not
one of them. As a consequence, students must learn how to position and relax
their mouth articulators. The closest Spanish-speaking learners can get to a
schwa is by saying “uh-uh” or “u-huh,” which are commonly used to express “no”
or “yes” respectively. Students get to confuse the schwa with the Spanish /o/
or /ɐ/ vowel sounds. Strictly speaking, a /ʌ/-sound is a neutral sound, which
happens to be the most common vowel sound in English. Consequently, mastering
this sound is a must!
N TIP for teachers: To really have students produce a schwa and
have them hear it clearly, have them put a pen or pencil across their mouth and
say /ʌ/. The resulting sound is the expected schwa sound needed.
y Latin “a.” Another American English sound that is
confused with the Spanish /o/ is the Latin “a.” As described in pronunciation
manuals, the /a/ sound is a non-rounded sound where your jaw is quite low. This
particular sound is not present in British dialects where the /ɔ/ is favored in
pronouncing words such as “hot” or “dot.” With good modeling and practice
students can pronounce this vowel sound correctly.
N TIP for teachers: Tell students that this vowel sound is like
the one you produce when your dentist, prior to checking your teeth, says: “Say
ah!” That is indeed a Latin “a.”
Mastering the pronunciation of a foreign language is no
easy task. It does require lots of training and effort to mechanically produce
accurate vowel sounds (or consonant phonemes and allophones). By having
students produce these 5 vowels correctly, a great improvement will have been
attained by them. A bit of research by the pronunciation instructor on the
students’ native language sounds is desirable to really help them master vowel
and consonant sounds appropriately.
ETo
fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and
expand these areas:
1
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Tips for mastering vowel sounds
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2
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Best pronunciation manuals for students
|
3
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Best ways to model sounds for EFL students
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4
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IPA and its variations
|
5
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Students’ native language sounds
|
Jonathan Acuña
ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other blogs I often write for my
students at the university are:
Sunday, October 21, 2012
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