Job Discussion Forums

[mapache]

Any advice on how to get native Spanish speakers to correctly pronounce English past tense regular verbs? I've tried the book rules (cooked = cook't etc.) and simplified these by treating all the "e's" in the "ed" endings as "mudos" (silent) with the exception of verbs ending in "t" and "d". Alas, even after hours of pronunciation practice most of my proficiency students (and many Mexican teachers and coordinators as well) continue to say "finish-ed".

[M@tt]

the simple rule is that

1) if the verb ends in -t or -d, pronounce the -ed as an additional syllable.

if the verb ends in any other sounds (besides t or d), then:
2) -ed will be pronounced as a /t/ if the last sound of the verb is unvoiced
3) -ed will be pronounced as a /d/ if the last sound of the verb is voiced

You can tell your students to combine rules 2 and 3 if they want something really simple. It's hard to choose the wrong one and if they do it won't be confused with other words anyway.

examples:
exploit (rule 1). exploited--> exploit-ed
flip (rule 2 because /p/ is unvoiced). flipped --> flipt
bug (rule 3 because /g/ is voiced). bugged --> bugd

try purposely confusing rules 2 and 3 and saying /flipd/ or /bugt/. it's not only difficult to do it wrong, but it doesn't really make a difference.

i hope that helps.

[Guy Courchesne]

Nice, compact explanation Matt. I like to tie it into a backchaining exercise to reinforce it in speaking practice.

[ls650]

[M@tt]

you might try contrasting simple past verbs with past participles used as adjectives. for example, alleged. the verb form is two syllables and the adjective form is three. there aren't a whole lot of words like this but it might drive the point home.

you should also point out that an added syllable for the -ed ending (when not needed) will often be heard as "it" and assumed to be a direct object.
now go design a nifty lesson that will make that point really memorable!

[TheLongWayHome]

[mapache]

I think this advice is spot on. No more traditional
present/past/past participle verb lists for intro students until after many pronunciation drills. Thank you everyone for your help.

[TheLongWayHome]

[MELEE]

Input input input input.
I do expain the rule like m@tt said, I teach future engineers and some really like that maticulous stuff, and I've seen a small minority actually pronounce them correctly after being shown the rule. For the vast majority they need to hear the verb used in comprehensible input many many times and it will become automatic like it is for us. A few hours a week of English class is just not enough. If they are serious about wanted to learn, they need a couple of hours a day (or more) of comprehensible imput. Unfortuantely, most of my students are not willing or unable to give that sort of time. They ask me how I learned Spanish. The answer hours and hours a day over years and years of learning. And I'm not done yet.

[ls650]

I've found results similar to MELEE. You can help the students to produce correct pronunciation, and think "A ha, they've learned it", yet a few weeks later the same students will slip back to the incorrect pronunciation. It's something that must be reinforced semester after semester, or it will be forgotten.

[some waygug-in]

There must be some sort of pnemonic (sp?) device that can help or tongue twister type rhymes.

Something like -- Peter Piper picked a pack etc.


Perhaps you could make your own little rhymes to help students .

Wally walked and talked while Warren stalked and shocked.

Wanda waited and skated while Wendy anticipated.

Doug shrugged and hugged while George gorged and forged.


or something similar.

Use verbs that the you notice the students are having trouble with.

[MELEE]

There's a great lesson in the classic English File (The corresponding lesson in New English File is similar, but I think lacks the entrique of the classic one). It's about a women who leaves her husband with out giving any reason. The story uses these verbs in this order: type, wash, pack, call, arrive, change, land (an airplane) wait, and rent. First all the /t/ sounds, then the /d/ sounds, then the /Id/ sounds. The lesson wraps up with the song Yesterday, imagining that it was written by the women's husband, who happens to be named John.

[business2300]

Anyone have any good esl teaching sites that I can pull tips from?

[Samantha]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/

[cangringo]

Agreed that it takes a lot of reinforcement to get the correct pronunciation but that's the same for any pronunciation. I have some students who constantly revert back to the j sound for y until I catch them and they fix it.

Just an extra note on the voiceless and voiced sounds. Do the lesson by starting with a sound and getting them to feel their throat, for instance b. There is a vibration for this sound so it's pronounced d as in dabbed. Do the same for voiceless, s as in kissed. Get the students to feel their throats as you go through the rest of the sounds and ask them which side the words go in, voiced or voiceless. Also show the t & d sounds and test them on those as well. I find this method really reinforces the different sounds.

After that, agreed some will revert back to incorrect pronunciation but you can also bring up a reminder by doing the throat feel again. Seems to work fairly well for us because they start thinking about it more.

I also like the tongue twister idea, always good for pronunciation.