Common Phonemic Difficulties for German Native Speakers

Common Phonemic Difficulties for German Native Speakers

Part 3: Dealing with Native German Students

[Phonotactics]

As it has been pointed out on our first two posts on phonotactics [1] & [2], English has a unique sound distribution that may or may not be similar to that of the German language, or any other tongue on this planet. The phonotactic distribution of German does overlap with some areas of the English vowel and consonant sound distribution, yet there are areas that don’t overlap –at all- with English. Those areas are the ones that need to be polished by the German student.

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[1] Acuña, J (2013) Phonotactics and English Language Learning (ELL) 2

[2] Acuña, J (2013) Phonotactics and English Language Learning (ELL)

This new account on English phonotactics intends to help EFL/ESL instructors dealing with German native speakers learning English to overcome five of the most common mistakes they make: 1) Problems with voicing at the end of words, 2) the /v/ and /w/ sounds, 3) the TH in English, 4) Confusion of /æ/ and /ɛ/, and 5) The /ow/ vs. /ɔ/ vowel sounds.

One of the first phonotactic differences ELT instructors spot when working with German learners is the lack of appropriate voicing in words ending with voiced consonants such as the /v/-sound.

Word	English Pronunciation	Common Mistake
live	/layv/	/layf/
knives	/nayvz/	/nayfs/
Sample words / Prof. Jonathan Acuña’s docx.

It’s imperative that the German learners get to practice with different contrastive words including sister sounds –voiced and voiceless counterparts-. This way will be a great exercise to self-train their ears to listen to the sound difference and speech apparatus to actually produce the sounds accurately.

Sample Drilling Exercise
/f/	vs.	/v/	safe	save
/k/	vs.	/g/	pick	pig
/t/	vs.	/d/	bet	bed
/tʃ/	vs.	/ʤ/	batch	badge
/s/	vs.	/z/	face	phase
/p/	vs.	/b/	rope	robe
Exercises for German Students / Prof. Jonathan Acuña’s docx

Probably, the most noticeable pronunciation mistake an EFL/ESL instructor is bound to detect when working with native German students is the way they pronounce the letter –w-. In German the W is pronounced as a /v/-sound. This is just a language transfer they make from their mother tongue to English. That’s why the learner, with the help of his/her instructor, must be alert to counterattack this problem. And once more, constant drilling can be of great help for the student.

Sample Drilling Exercise for /w/
went	vs.	vent
wine	vs.	fine
wary	vs.	ferry
well	vs.	fell
will	vs.	fill
west	vs.	fest
Exercises for German Students / Prof. Jonathan Acuña’s docx

The Consonants of English and German (König and Gast 2007: 14)

Another common pronunciation habit carried into English because of the German’s phonotactics is the TH. As Bastug (2011) points out, the TH sounds don’t have a counterpart in German. [Also see König and Gast (2007)]  And as Mojsin (2009) suggests in her book, some Germans speakers may substitute /t/ or /d/ for TH. For these reasons, the student must work on learning how to pronounce these sounds correctly to continue to work on their accent reduction.

Typical Mistake	Should be …
tank	thank
dose	those
mudder	mother
Taken from Mojsin (2009, page 147)

Confusing /æ/ and /ɛ/ is also another challenge for the German student. The instructor has to work with him/her on how the mouth is shaped and how much it is open to model the sound and have him/her produce the vowel sound right.

Sample words to practice /æ/
sand	send
salary	celery
bat	bet
dad	dead
mat	met
fans	fence
Exercises for German Students / Prof. Jonathan Acuña’s docx

Finally, another challenge for the German English learner is to accurately produce the /ow/ sound, which is usually substituted by an /ɔ/ sound. No doubt that working on sound production and recognition needs to be stressed to guarantee that both sounds are not confused. Preparing some pronunciation cards with contrastive words can help the student constantly practice the correct pronunciation for these vowel sounds.

Sample Pronunciation Card for /ow/
/ow/	vs.	/ɔ/
low	vs.	law
boat	vs.	bought
coat	vs.	caught
woke	vs.	walk
Exercises for German Students / Prof. Jonathan Acuña’s docx

To sum up, making students aware of the phonotactic or phonemic differences and similarities can be of great help to have them avoid their transfer of pronunciation habits in their mother tongue. Knowing some of these phonetic differences on the instructor’s side can also help them better plan for their classes.

ETo fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	Phonotactic rules in German
2	Common pronunciation mistakes by German students
3	The /r/ sound
4	The lax “i”
5	The lax “u”

Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano

ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica

Curricular Developer at CCCN

Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina

Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in Central America

For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:

@jonacuso – Twitter

jonacuso@gmail.com – Gmail

Other blogs and sites I often write for my students at the university are:

1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/	2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/
3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/	4. Computering Applications in Education

Bastug, N. (2011), A Contrastive Analysis of the English and the German Sound System, Munich, GRIN Publishing GmbH, http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/195175/a-contrastive-analysis-of-the-english-and-the-german-sound-system

König & Gast (2007) The Consonants of English and German http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/195175/a-contrastive-analysis-of-the-english-and-the-german-sound-system

Mojsin, L (2009) Mastering the American Accent. LA: Barrons

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Common Phonemic Difficulties for German Native Speakers by Jonathan Acuña