Job Discussion Forums

[SimonM]

I've noticed that a lot of kids in China tend to put a Schwa at the end of every word ending with a g, d or k sound.

Reduh
Bikeuh
etc.


Getting them to drop the schwa and end with a more natural consonant sound is often a much more daunting task than (for instance) getting them to distinguish between "th" and "s".

What I am curious about though: is this a naturally occuring error due to a different pallate or is this a pedagogical error? Are teachers adding in the Schwa in order to emphasize the final sound of the word? Because I can think of better ways to express an end consonant sound than by adding
"uh" to it.

Thoughts?

[Roger]

That's an excellent question! I do not know the answer but I am sure the schwa has no natural cause.

I find myself overemphasising final consonants so that my aurally-impaired Chinese English learners get the difference between "mouth" and "mouse", "final" and "finer". The more you focus on such problems the more you reinforce them...
Especially the Cantonese have a tendency to swallow the final consonants of English words.

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.

Middy

[latefordinner]

I'm a more than a little inclined to agree with Middy here. This "aural impairment" (nice one, Roger) seems largely due to Chinese teaching techniques. That said, there are sounds in our language that are difficult for them to adapt to, just as they have sounds in their language that are difficult for us. The schwa however seems to be something that is taught.

[go_ABs]

I assume you are all talking about adults here. I'll take a step forward and say that the same thing happens when teaching kids. I say "red" and they say back "reduh".

But the problem is, some of the kids hear only "ree" and don't quite get the 'd' on the end. So for them I emphasise the 'd' and have (one or twice) caught myself making a sound very similar to "redih". It's quite easy for me to notice and correct it, and to make a point of correcting it, but I can see how for a Chinese English teacher it wouldn't be so easy; it's probably how they were taught.

All the kids here are taught to say "oranjee", and getting them to stop is an ongoing battle. This is a gross mistake Chinese teachers make. You can't excuse "oranjee". I can, however, see how things like "reduh" comes up.

I bet whenever my children take tests with their Chinese English teachers they get marked down for saying "orange" instead of "oranjee".

[tw]

[SimonM]

NP TW. Thanks for the ideas guys. I suspected this was not a natural part of the pronunciation gap but I wasn't sure.

I find myself spending a lot of time getting my students (children right now acutally) clicking, buzzing, and making other consonant sounds without schwa in order to get them making the sounds without the schwa in real words. A few of them find this very ammusing but some are actually learning something.

On a related note: in the same class the worst tongue twister they have had to endure was "my Brothers Birthday is. Alternating between th and s is hard for a lot of them. I think we spent twice as much time on this as on any other permutation of Birthday statements.

[tw]

[SimonM]

I won't even mention what it sounded like when I once worked with a class on the sentence "I like cookies".

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.

Middy

[GoPies]

Extended version of the pleasant fuc.... d'oh!:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mentor01/song.htm