Job Discussion Forums

[jpvanderwerf2001]

In your experience, which sounds (in English) do Russians have the most trouble pronouncing? How do you address these in your classroom?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[waxwing]

I wonder why you ask?

Well, it's been a while for me Limited contact with Russian for me nowadays here in China. But here's what I remember from my time teaching there:

In my opinion, it's mostly vowel sounds that are the problem. And if I'm right, there are good reasons for that.

Consonant sounds
============
th - both voiced and not is often difficult to produce at all and they replace with "z" or some such.

h is often overaspirated (by analogy with Russian X). Doesn't affect understanding.

r - they use the Russian one. Again, rarely if ever a problem for understanding.

I'm sure others will add to that list.

Vowel sounds
=========
-the "a" in cat and bat (ae in IPA) is to me one of the principal markers of the Russian accent. Some Russians are unable to distinguish it from the "e" in bet. What they produce is something half way between the two, I think. Others, as I recall (or in other situations) use the Russian "a". Anyway it usually sounds very different from native speakers (whether Brit or Am) .. with a few talented exceptions.

- the "u" as in "cut" is not usually short enough; usually they replace it with the stressed Russian "a" (ah ..
-distinguishing between short i as in ship and long i/ee as in sheep

You know it really occurs to me that this list could be very long .. pretty much all the diphthongs don't sound quite right .. Another example is the "o" in "know" - often sounds very strange indeed ..

Well, the "i" in "might/like" is more or less OK, because ай exists. When they pronounce "say" they often do it pretty well, because of "ей" (OK it's not 100%).
I think this is the problem; the core set of vowel sounds is quite different, so that when they try to combine them it goes all over the place.

Our mess of vowel combinations seems to be difficult for everyone, but Russians butcher them quite badly compared to the average European.

[Brooks]

I think students need help with intonation since when some students speak in English, it sounds like they are annoyed or not interested in what the other person is saying.

W and H can be difficult for them.

for minimal pairs, have students compare rid/read, had/head, saw/so

for consonants, I think aspiration can be a little tough - pear/bear, for example.
Other minimal pairs like tie/die, cave/gave, thing/sing, then/zen, sing/sin.

Final consonants too, think of rib/rip, had/hat, bag/back.

And consonant clusters - have students say words like play, pray, etc.

[coledavis]

I think ng as in impeaching is a problem too.

[skye]

cup/cop

sheet/sh*t

cheap/chip

sheep/ship

beach/b*tch

[Yosma]

In terms of contrastive analysis, the book to look in is 'Learner English' by Swan and Smith.

There's a chapter on Russian which covers problems in pronunciation as well as grammar and other areas.