English, as a language, is replete with a number of complexities, one of them being: the phonetics. What adds fuel to the fire is the disparity that exists between how a word is written and how it is supposed to be pronounced. English does not lend itself to simple rules that cover everything that can be written. Let's look at the most frequent pronunciation errors committed by the second language speakers, investigate their causes, and plan how to avoid them.
Vowel Sounds: The Trap of Spelling
The phonetic features of speech that are difficulties particularly for English speakers are related to English vowel sounds. The phonetic characteristics of English vowels can be very confusing because one letter can represent many sounds depending on the other sounds in the word. A good example is the letter "a" in the words cat and father and the letters "e" in bed and in bead. English is thus a perplexing language, especially for those who are accustomed to a more phonetic approach to writing.
The Problem: Long Vowels versus Short Vowels
In a fair number of incidences, long vowels and short vowels have caused misunderstanding. Many of the mistakes from these non-native speakers consist of confusing sit with seat or ship with sheep. Various stress patterns alter the length of vowels in accented words which can cause stress in the meaning of a word.
Solution
Work on distinguishing the long and short vowel sounds, and listen to how each is produced. One way to achieve this is to locate groups of people who share the same set of words except for critical sounds. For instance, the words 'bit' and 'beat' mutually exclude the single vowel. It is advisable to record pronunciations of these targets and later refer them to how an inhabitant of that language pronounces them. Notice the subtle shifts in the positioning of the tongue and the mouth in pronouncing short from long vowels.
The Problem: Misplacement of the Schwa
Misplacement or mispronunciation of the schwa sound represented as /ə/ in phonetics is a phonological problem among many pupils. Learners usually have most difficulty with the pronunciation of this sound, even though it's the most common vowel sound When speaking English it can be distracting the use of the phonetic language itself within the sentence to mention words such as banana, sofa or doctor, most of those do contain schwas as unstressed vowels but will regularly be pronounced as clear vowels.
Solution
What I would do is place the schwa pronunciation less on focus, instead concentrate on the unstressed vowels. Attempt to say banana as buh-nan-uh instead of ba-na-na, use shadowing techniques with real natives.
Consonant Sounds: The Greatest Inhibitors
For most native speakers who are rare in certain parts of the world the idea of learning new sounds within the consonant section of the phonetics can be traced to several intrusions. For the purposes of this article, let's take the 'th' sounds and overlapping 'r/l' sounds as reference primary issues that have frequent occurrence.
The Issue: The "th" sound
The "th" sound is especially problematic for non-native speakers because it does not exist in a lot of languages. In words like think, bath, this, and they the tongue has to be placed in between the teeth, which is a sound that can be hard to articulate. Students commonly use the two sounds, "th" with "s," "d," which creates the mispronunciations of the sounds for instance, sink as in think, and dis as in this.
Solution
The solution to mastering the ()th) sound is to practice the placement of the tongue before other components. To create the soft "th" in the word think or in the word path, stick the tongue partially out between the teeth and blow air. For the tongue placed firmly against the teeth, produce a bit harder "th" as in this or that. Start with the production of singular words and later move over to the sentences containing these words.
The Problem: The "r" and "l" sound
Concerning the common errors, it is no longer a secret when people confuse words containing letter R and letter L. This has been most common with the native speakers of other language, Japanese or Korean that can be the cause of these two sounds being less prominent or completely non-existent. They manage, for instance, to pronounce the words light and right, lead and read the same, which is a form of misunderstanding.
Solution
To make the distinction between r and l sounds, there is a need to focus on the positions of the tongue and the mouth. The "r" sound is made when the tongue is rolled back towards the roof of the mouth, but not in contact with it. For the sound of "l", the tongue makes contact with the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth. Practice minimal pairs such as rice–lice; road–load and record yourself. Then, compare your pronunciation with that of native speakers.
Word Stress: Altering Meanings
Consider the following example to understand the role of word stress in English. Word stress is defined as the force used in pronouncing one or more syllables in a word and it can vary and change the meaning of words. Word stress would be considered misplaced when the stress falls into a different word than intended – when it moves confused to the listener, even capable of pronouncing all sounds.
The Problem: Wording it Wrong
Having different stress patterns for words is important, for example, record – the noun and record – the verb. The stress in the first syllable highlights it as a noun, thus placing the focus on the overriding first concept and building the core concept. Relatively often, speakers of foreign languages transfer the first stress pattern to the second version which in most cases causes misunderstanding.
Solution
Be attentive to native speakers stressing particular words and do it the same way when speaking. When you come across episodic words, make sure to identify the stressed syllable and practice that word's pronunciation to produce the stress effectively. Some dictionaries provide stress symbols with apostrophy (such as, /ˈrɛkɔrd/ for 'record' directed as a noun).
The Problem: Sentence Stress and Intonation
Speaking sentences, the English language users give emphasis and stress to certain key words. For instance, take the sentence: She didn't buy the car. The underlining of the word 'buy' suggests that yes, she did not purchase the car, but rather went ahead and did other things with it, perhaps rented it out. Again if one were to put the focus on 'car', that would suggest he/she went ahead and purchased a vehicle, but not a car in this case.
Constant misplacement of sentence stress occurs on the learners' part, which ends up making them sound flat or robotic. In sharp contrast, native speakers situationally alter all stresses and all intonations in an effort to communicate their intended message.
Solution
Read the above sentence and ask yourself before speaking which of the words is of utmost importance and which should then be stressed. Try listening to short dialogues or TV programs or movies. Try to speak exactly what speakers say not only words but rhythm and stress. Record your voice and analyze your intonations relative to the record.
Silent Letters: Made to Confound
Do you have a guess why it is so difficult to learn the names of all these places and their languages on the map? The answer lies in the fact that there are many words with silent letters (not pronounced). For example, consider the letters 'k', 'p', and 's' in the words "knight", "psychology", and "island", respectively, which confuse many non-native speakers when the host endeavors to pronounce all letters.
The Difficulty in Question: The Letter of the 'Silent'
A large number of people have this misconception based on the letters in the words that the letters should be pronounced, some words such as 'debt' and 'comb' tend to be pronounced with all the letters of the word. And it becomes confusing as a native speaker doesn't use so many sounds to pronounce a word.
Problem-Solving
Try to make sense of how the silent letters letters are used in the interface of the application or the website and become familiar with their applications. This involves making a list of words that have silent letters. Select to practice a set amount of words in a day. Using online dictionaries with audio pronunciation will also help as verification of work. Eventually, such words will begin to settle in the head where the silent letters are pronounced without much effort.
Reduced Speech: Manitoba Speed
If it is bad enough that you work for a translator specializing in the language on the television screen and reading the subtitle at the bottom is even harder to follow, it is even worse when it comes to native speakers who use the target language on regular basis. They do not speak every single word in full, rather they squeeze them together and dulled these unwound words to nothing. While the part 'What are you doing?' is pronounced effortlessly in its full form the short alone 'Whatcha doing?' seems easier. Therein lies a difficulty for somebody that is not a marked -. While for an average English speaking person such contractions seem only logical considering to issues regarding the pace of speech, this is not the case for a learner.
The Problem: Reduced Speech Demonstrated and Understood
English as a Second Language pupils make attempts at articulating each word distinctly and properly owing to its written nature. Such an approach causes speech incompleteness. It also causes problems when native speakers have to "reduce" or slur their words together in order to accomplish their goal.
Solution
Listen to the non-standard pronunciations in native speech, for example, during communication, while watching movies or listening to podcasts. Pay attention to reduced forms — how 'going to' is pronounced as 'gonna' or how 'want to' becomes 'wanna'. Even if it seems strange, try to match their cadences, the rhythm, and intonation patterns. When native speakers are pronounced quickly, it is normal for these speakers to be uncomfortable. However, it is these types of reductions which assist in making a person feel at ease.
