The French are famous for their cheezy accent when speaking English. More times than I can count, students have come to me telling me that they want to work on their accents. The hardest phonetic sounds are R's, the "th", and vowels at the beginning of a word.
"R" is often pronounced like "Air" instead of a pirate's "Arrrrgh" or a tiger's "RrrrrRrrr". I know I must look absolutely ridiculous when I'm teaching but making a pirate scowl or a tiger growl usually gets people laughing, no matter their age.
The "TH" is just plain and simply ignored. I try to get my adults to put their tongues between their teeth when practicing this sound, but they just feel ridiculous. The more comfortable they are with you the more they'll dare to be embarrassed, but more likely than not, this is a sound I will be repeating for years and years to come -- until classroom teachers finally decide that they'll teach people how to say it correctly while they are still small, and not to say just a simple "T", a "Z" or a "D", as one poor primary school classroom teacher said.
Vowel sounds at the beginning of a word are tricky because a lot of people will put a mysterious, breathy "h", turning "ate" into "hate" and "apple" into "happle". I've observed this for long enough to have figured out that they just plain and simply don't hear it, which makes it hard to correct it.
So if they can't hear it, then what sense can you evoke to make them aware of the mistake they are making?
I have my students put their hand under their mouth and practice saying different words with breathy h's and non-breathy h's (think "horse" verses "hour") and then practice saying words that begin with pure vowels (apple, earth, orange, etc.). When they feel their hot breath on their hands, they will realize what a breathy "h" feels like. Then, if they say "hate" instead of "ate", they will plain and simply feel their mistake. This requires practice and repetition, but it's a simple reminder just putting your hand as the teacher under your own mouth to remind them of breathy or non-breathy "h" sounds at the beginning of words.
What sounds have you mistakenly heard your students making and how did you go about fixing them?
French people are beyond appalling with pronunciation. It's like they don't have ears.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that they are lacking ears, per se... It's more that they are lacking sounds in their own language and as adults, it's challenging to re-teach their mouths to make the desired sounds. The other challenge is that culturally, they are very proud and would rather say nothing or speak like everybody else than make mistakes or appear different. In school, they are taught to speak with a French accent when speaking English and by the time they get to me as adults, I have to break down their whole educational background to teach them first, how to think differently (break down complexes, get them laughing/feeling comfortable, accepting to make mistakes...) and THEN teach them how to speak. I enjoy the challenge and finding exercises that reinforce all of these important points.
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