Dec 19 2009
Teaching Pronunciation To Chinese?
My cousin is staying over from china and I’ve been teaching her english. She already does English at her school in china but the only problem is her English teacher is chinese and she said her teacher can’t even pronounce things properly. I’m finding it really difficult to teach her how to pronounce the words properly has she hasn’t even been taught where to put your tongue, teeth and lips for each letter and her tongue is usually in the wrong spot. Some words she just can’t say and the others she has a really thick accent, how were you taught or how did you teach how to pronounce?
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4 Responses to “Teaching Pronunciation To Chinese?”
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Improving one’s pronunciation can be really difficult. We already begin to lose our capacity to distinguish sounds that are not part of our native tongue when we are still babies. So, she may not even be able to really hear the difference. One way to improve is to have her record herself, and try to hear the subtle differences between your pronunciation and her own pronunciation. Then show her tongue placement etc to help her learn how she can make her pronunciation closer to your own and more like a native English speaker’s.
thick accent originates from her unwillingness to pronounce the words right…
if she doesn’t want to learn — why do you want to teach?…
Just be patient with her. Make sure her tongue is in the right place, and take things slowly. She’s never had to say sounds like these before, so it will be hard for her to feel comfortable with it. Make sure to immerse her in the accent you’d like her to learn, she will start hearing the difference between that accent and her teacher’s accent.
We are all born with the capacity to say every sound in every language. However, as we are raised to speak a certain language (or two, depending on how you’re raised), our brain will throw out all the other sounds we don’t use on a daily basis. So after a certain age, we’re only left with the capacity to form the sounds we use in our native language, and other languages’ sounds are entirely foreign to us. It may take years to learn the proper forming of those sounds, or some speakers just may never overcome certain sounds. This is perfectly normal, and you should let her know every day that her accent is not a bad thing.
Good points are made by both “Kelly” and “A” regarding pronunciation and recording, too. There are ways to cheat certain sounds. There are sounds that you can nearly force someone to make by using a method that is different from your own, but easier to explain and emulate.
For instance:
The letter R is very difficult for some people and is often confused with L or D. By puckering the lips all the way out to fish proportions and pulling the tongue back, one is nearly forced to pronounce a good English R even if trying to say “oooo”. In fact trying to say “oooo” in this situation may even be useful. The tongue should not touch the roof of the mouth or you may get an L. Alone it may sound a tiny bit off, but use this method to say “rabbit”. It can be very effective. That may not be how you go about it, but it’s a good cheat. And R is a major component in some sound combinations. EnglishQandA.blogspot.com (no www) is a site for people studying English as a foreign language. You can ask your question there as well.