1) The document identifies several high priority areas for non-native English speakers including consonant contrasts, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation.
2) It groups errors into categories from A to E based on their effect on intelligibility, from those that cause breakdowns to those that are finer points.
3) It provides specific examples of pronunciation challenges for Spanish speakers, such as differentiating /b/ and /v/ or producing /θ/ and lists ways non-native speakers may substitute or modify sounds.
1) The document identifies several high priority areas for non-native English speakers including consonant contrasts, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation.
2) It groups errors into categories from A to E based on their effect on intelligibility, from those that cause breakdowns to those that are finer points.
3) It provides specific examples of pronunciation challenges for Spanish speakers, such as differentiating /b/ and /v/ or producing /θ/ and lists ways non-native speakers may substitute or modify sounds.
1) The document identifies several high priority areas for non-native English speakers including consonant contrasts, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation.
2) It groups errors into categories from A to E based on their effect on intelligibility, from those that cause breakdowns to those that are finer points.
3) It provides specific examples of pronunciation challenges for Spanish speakers, such as differentiating /b/ and /v/ or producing /θ/ and lists ways non-native speakers may substitute or modify sounds.
1) The document identifies several high priority areas for non-native English speakers including consonant contrasts, word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation.
2) It groups errors into categories from A to E based on their effect on intelligibility, from those that cause breakdowns to those that are finer points.
3) It provides specific examples of pronunciation challenges for Spanish speakers, such as differentiating /b/ and /v/ or producing /θ/ and lists ways non-native speakers may substitute or modify sounds.
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Joanne Kenworthy Peter MacCarthy Collins and Mees
High Priority: vital for intelligibility Category A is for To establish a hierarchy of
Low priority: do not affect intelligibility distinctions between error we must take into Optional attention: features which contribute to one phoneme of a account the reactions of native a noticeable foreign accent but do not affect language and another speakers. In general, we can intelligibility. phoneme of the same rank errors in: language, giving rise to 1: errors which lead to HP: The areas of rhythm, word stress, and minimal pairs. No breakdown of intelligibility sentence stress are high priority areas for all pronunciation of a 2: errors which give rise to learners. foreign language can irritation or amusement HP: For content words in stressed position be considered 3: errors which provoke few should be given high priority but for adequate that doesn’t such reactions and may even function words ‘the, this, that’ OA is appropriate. satisfactorily distinguish pass unnoticed. between all its separate Problems with consonants for Spanish speakers. phonemes. Category 1: HP: Confusion between andThere is a Category B is for 1. Confusion of crucial sound in Spanish which is a kind of combination anything in a person’s phonemic contrasts in of the two sounds, which they tend to substitute way of speaking a vowel system for the two English consonants. foreign language which (widespread) HP: may be too close to is judged to be a gross 2. Confusion of fortis/lenis so the word day sounds like they or marked foreign 3. Consonant clusters accent. (Spanish) HP: as in thin is absent in some varieties of Category C is for 4. Crucial consonant Spanish. Watch out for as in 'fin’ or 'sin' as mispronunciations that contrasts (Spanish) substitutes. are not particularly 5. Deletion of or HP: and (sue-zoo) In some varieties these serious in themselves replacement by sounds do not occur. but might well receive (Spanish) HP: as in ‘shoe’. This sound does not occur in attention because they 6. Word stress many varieties. are comparatively easy LP: and They are unfamiliar sounds and to put right without Category 2: much expenditure of learners will either substitute or the sound time. 1. Inappropriate represented by letter ‘y’ in Spanish. The latter will articulations, strong Category D covers alveolar trills sound foreign but still be intelligible. matters that may be HP: as in yet. Learners will either use the quite difficult for the 2. Dental fricative problems (widespread) Spanish sound ‘y’ or they may substitute foreign learner to get 3. Incorrect allophones of HP: as in wet. Learners may pronounce this right, even with the 4. Weak and contracted forms as a or they may insert a before the sound expenditure of some (widespread) HP: and Speakers of some South time and trouble, but 5. Inappropriate rhoticism American varieties may not use sufficient which contribute 6. Strong retroflex setting aspiration and may tend to delete at the end of notably to authenticity of pronunciation. Items a word. HP: as in ‘hold’. Learners will either in this category deserve Category 3: delete the sound or pronounce it with a great deal 1. Intonation errors attention with students of ‘hissing’ quality. There may also be confusion who are aiming at a (widespread) between and , so ‘ham’ may sound like really high overall 2. Lack of syllabic consonants ‘jam’ (widespread) standard. 3. Compound stress LP: as in ‘sing’. The learner may pronounce Category E. (widespread the so the word ends with a consonant cluster. Miscellaneous items of a phonetic nature that might be held to HP: as in ‘sing’. The learner may substitute constitute finer points in so ‘wing’ may be pronounced as ‘win’ the pronunciation of a language. University Consonant clusters and sequences students and teachers in training will benefit HP: Two and three element clusters beginning from this. with (small, slow, scream, school). Learners may insert a vowel before the so small sounds like ‘a-small’. LP: Learners will tend to add for noun plurals, even where is required, so ‘pens’ will sound like ‘pence’ HP: Speakers may delete in final consonant clusters (picks, bets) HP: Final consonant clusters with and are problematic (test, laughed). Learners may delete the final or or insert a vowel between the two consonants
Word Stress
HP: One area of difficulty is the stress of
compound words and adjective + noun combinations. (blackbird, white house, white house)
Sentence Stress HP: Many meanings which are conveyed in English through sentence stress are conveyed in Spanish through particular words.
Intonation (Pitch range, final falling pitch
movement, the rise-fall difficulty)
Problems with vowels.
HP: ages-edges confusion. Encourage lip spreading for HP: learners may substitute a sound that is similar to making ‘must’ sound like ‘most’ , or so it sounds like ‘mast’. HP: (bit-beat) confusion. Learners will use the latter for both vowels HP: confusion (bat-bet) Learners will tend to use the latter for both vowels OA: confusion. The former will be used by most learners for both vowels. HP: does not occur in Spanish. Learners will substitute the vowel suggested by the spelling. HP: There is no variation in length in Spanish vowels. Learners will tend to make vowels equally long, which will be too short for the English ear.
