Job Discussion Forums

[Alex42]

Last night I was explaining to one of my Argentinian students that she has to shorten the "i" in "live", so that it doesn�t sound like "leave". Likewise she has to shorten the "e" in "pepper", so it doesn�t sound like "paper".

Does anyone have a list of similar words - that aren�t homophones to us, but they sometimes are when foreigners speak English?

If such a list exists (and if I don�t have to think up my own) my students would be very grateful!

Muchos gracias,

Alex

[dmb]

Can't remember the author's name but there are a couple of pron books called 'ship or sheep' and tree or three' Check your resource room.

[dyak]

Hmm... there's,

feel/fill
beach/b�tch
heel/hill
slip/sleep

and about a million more.

Look in any pron. resource and you'll find more. 'Ship or Sheep' and the Headway ones come to mind. I've also seen maze activities based on these sounds but i can't remember the book.

[dmb]

dyak I think the book with the maze is called 'pronunciation games'Again I can't remember the author(Hadfield maybe)

[dyak]

Yes! That's the one.

[guty]

sheet/?

[Stephen Jones]

Yep, Guty. I had a Spanish girlfriend a long time ago who worked as an aupair. One day she was ironing the bedlinen when one of the family asked here what she was doing.

"I'm just ironing the shit" .

It did seem a somewhat obsessive dedication to cleanliness.

[SueH]

[dmb]

So, who is Hadfield? What did she do?

[Sheep-Goats]

The aformentioned Ship or Sheep book, which is pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052128354X/qid=1109233476/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/002-6349247-8204819

Beware that sounds that are or are not homophones to English learners are based wholly on what sounds they have in L1 and what sounds are new in English (L2).

Similarily, Hinidi has three different S sounds (palatal, aveolar, and silibant) whereas English only has one. Khmer (Cambodian) has many consonants that English doesn't (like "dt" which is halfway between a d and t, for example) and, what's worse, uses them in horrific consonant clusters. Basque has three different X sounds, similar to the three different Hindi s'es. Obviously, these "missing" sounds cause English speakers a lot of trouble when trying to learn these respective languages as we both have trouble producing and hearing them.

The long/short vowel sounds you mentioned are a particular problem for some Latinate language speakers. Many Asians have trouble distinguishing l and r, v and w, and final t vs. d / g vs. k (as final consnants are typically less common in Sino-Tiebetan languages). Arabs are the de-rigeur example for trouble differentiating p and b sounds, even at the start of a syllable.

[voodikon]

this is a pretty good site that lists some of these, sorted by native language:

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phono.html

[Alex42]

Thanks for that, everyone!

In my lesson last night my students made very little progress on this, but we had fun trying!

They certainly weren�t ready for "how many sheets could a sheet-slitter slit if a sheet-slitter could slit sheets?" at any rate. It sounded very rude.

[carnac]

The best book on minimal pairs I have found is:
"Pronunciation Contrasts in English"
Nilsen, Don L.F. and Nilsen, Aleen Pace
Reissued by:
Waveland Press
http://www.waveland.com
(was op for a bit)
Separates and identifies difficult phonemes by L1 so is a quick reference to the problems your particular students might face.
Also is worthless as a teaching aide. Sheep-ship, wow-vow, this'll-thistle. The students learn nothing from this. But there you go, it's the best there is for this.
The sort of book that is pushed by PhDs teaching MA candidates, the PhDs with little to no real-world experience in teaching real ESL/EFL learners.

[sprightly]

i don't feel that it's a valid thing to spend a lot of time on, as outside of ironing, shit, how many communication errors could it cause? really?

however, i did a quick exercise with students on this, not only for nominal pairs, but also dictating numbers and spelling.

make a mini-maze hear/say. for exmple, i say 'sheep.' students have cards, and one of those cards says, 'sheep--horse.' so that student says horse.
another student has a card saying, 'horse--fit.' he says 'fit' and so on.
however, another student has a card saying, 'feet--house.'
if he says house, you know he's misheard.

the student cards look like this, (what ever word/sounds you're combing)

hear ------ say
sheep--- horse
house---shoe
ship--banana

each student has a different card. the teacher has a master card, showing what sequence of words should be read.

the exercise takes about 15 minutes to prepare, and about 5 to do the first time. after that, it only takes about three, and you can re-use the cards with another class.

make sense?

[Alex42]