Teacher Discussion Forums

[francesen]

I'll begin with a story. A friend of mine was teaching in a Chinese middle school. He asked the students 'what food do you like?'. The students didn't understand, 'food? what is food?'. Even the Chinese teacher didn't recognize it. My friend kept saying the word, becoming more and more frustrated as of course they knew it! The a few minutes later the Chinese teacher gets it: 'oh! you mean food-a!' The children suddenly understand, 'food-a, yes food-a!'

It's a terrible problem, and some of my university students still put an 'a' sound on the end of words. Has anyone tried any methods of correcting this? I just don't know where to begin. Should I devote some classroom time to it, or should I spend some time with those that make the sound and try to correct them. Not really sure what to do.. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks-a!

[blackmagicABC]

Except for an "n" sound Chinese words never end in a consonant sound. It is extremely hard for many Chinese students to pronounce the difference between cap, cat and cab for example because they either produce the exact same sound "ca" for every word or they over emphasize the final sound as in your example.
It is interesting to note that if many or most people speak like that they start considering that the norm. It is not by any means a rare instance of what you have mentioned.
The students need to be corrected from the time they start learning as it is very habit forming. Many people in Hong Kong and Singapore put a "la" at the end of certain words or sentences and trust me it is very difficult to stop doing that. I am a native speaker and I picked up the habit. It was hard to kick.
As for fixing the problem, the students need to make aware of what is wrong and as soon as they can really hear the difference they can start correcting it themselves. Depending on what exactly you are teaching and how much time you have I would start with short vowel one syllable words and make reading lists that the students can read and record themselves doing so. You can then, by listening to the recordings, figure out where they have a problem. You will find that it is much easier for them to pronounce an ending "t" as opposed to an ending "d".
Even better would be to also have a recording where you read the list yourself and have them listen to it a few times at home before they record. If you are teaching a grammar lesson or conversation lesson try to think of activities where they would use the words of the word list for example present continuous tense:
He is taking a cab. The fat cat is in a bad cab. It is also taking a cab. If they are young kids play bingo where thay have to make sentences with the words of the word list but it has to be associated with what you are really supposed to teach.
I hope this helps at least a little. You have to understand though that words ending with consonants are very foreign to them.
If you are teaching Uni students it may be much more difficult. Try to gauge the seriousness of the problem. If they would be understood when they speak then they really just need to expand their ability to listen.

[longshikong]