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[DMcK]

I'm posting this here in the general forum as it applies to all (at least all I've come across) speakers of Spanish.

I'm sure everyone who has experience teaching native speakers of Spanish will know about the common inability to produce words with /ʷ/+/ʊ/ as in "would", which becomes "good".

Does anyone know any techniques they've found to be successful at helping this or is there no hope?

The problem can exist at any level. I have a student who has the CPE but can't say "would".

[Justin Trullinger]

I'm betting your student can say the heck out of "ould" though.

Very common problem, seems tied to that very particular phoneme pair, as students can have it and still say the "w" in "water" and "what" and "wild," "whiskey" and even "wow."

"Woman" is another that often shows the same semi-absent "w."

First step is awareness. The fact that "I would" is often spelled and pronounced as "I'd" seems to reinforce (for some students) the idea that there's a silent or semi-silent "w" in there. Awareness is fairly straightforward to build- tell students that the "w" is exactly the same as a number of other "w" words that they DO pronounce correctly. Try drilling them sequentially. (Say "water, whiskey, wow, would" Repeat.) If you're lucky and they're good, that may solve it- they may feel/hear the difference, and self correct once they know that the sound should be the same. It happens sometimes.

More often it doesn't. In that case, you've got to decide how much it's worth- breaking pronunciation habits is hard work, done over time. But then, if you've got CPE level students, why not bring some hard work into it?

Next step, to me, is to look at the sound production mechanism. What English speakers do to produce this "w" (or any "w") is to start with the lips together, pursed, almost in an "airkissing" expression. What Spanish speakers do, generally, is try to start it from a position that isn't quite there- mouth more open, lips round but apart, sort of in the "uh" face, if you know what I mean. Pointing out that the lips come together, like a kiss, again may be enough.

At least, with that information, your student should be able to produce the sound, on demand, consciously. (Sometimes I tell them to silently kiss their finger or pencil to start the sound. Sometimes just making the kissyface is enough.)

Getting it integrated into their speech, though...there's only so much you can do. A highly motivated student, once they can make the sound, can gradually, through self correction, get it there on their own.

Correcting in class may start that process. Once you've got them able to make the sound, you can just echo correct. (Say "ould?" whenever they say "ould.") Or blow them kisses. (Only do this when you've made it VERY clear that this gesture means "pronounce the &%$# "W"!!) Or just raise your eyebrows whever they do it...

Your students will think you're all that for knowing stuff about sound production. But many, perhaps most, will fail to correct such an practiced, unimportant error for the foreseeable future.

Best,
Justin

[DMcK]

Great, thanks for your reply, Justin.

Yeah, it's a very peculiar deficiency they have. Women often becomes "weemens" so doesn't show it up.

I've pretty much covered everything you mentioned but what you said has given me the idea of getting them to say a word with b+ʊ then make the same shape but beɡinninɡ with the mouth slightly open.

Pronunciation seems to be the number 1 issue for Spanish learners; not so much for non Iberian Spanish speakers but the natives here have grown up with hardly any exposure to the sounds and have real difficulty repeating what they hear. Their mouths are very rigid and trying to get them to loosen up is pretty frustrating at times. I couldn't possibly say how often I see blank faces, then eventually, when I write the word on the board, all is clear.

[Trinley]

When I teach pronunciation, I always use the IPA and discuss place of articulation. (I have heard a lot of ESL teachers say that they find IPA to be too much information for ESL students and that they rely on modeling alone, but my students have always enjoyed learning this and have made great improvements.)

As you know, the problem is that students don't know the difference in place of articulation for /w/ and /ʊ/. I think it makes great sense to teach them that. The lips are more rounded in /w/, and the place of articulation is labial-velar. I might not say "labial-velar" in class, but I would develop their awareness of the fact the /w/ is pronounced on the lips while /ʊ/ is pronounced farther back in the mouth. I would practice /w/ alone and then /ʊ/ alone until they have mastered both, and then work on combining them into /wʊ/ along with minimal pairs /wa/ /wi/ /wo/ etc and pairs /mʊ/ /bʊ/ etc. When they have mastered that, I would give them a word list with the target sounds. Of course, I wouldn't base an entire lesson on this. It might be a 10 minute pronunciation portion of a lesson. It will take time for them to improve, of course. Some students get it in days, others weeks, months, even years.

I think anyone would have real difficulty repeating what they hear when they hear phonemes that don't exist in their language. When I went to China, all I heard was Shing Shing Shing until my Chinese teacher informed me of the place of articulation of the sounds that don't exist in English. Then I was able to make the sounds myself and perceive the difference between them.