Spanish
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All English language learners encounter difficulties along the way. Each individual person may find some aspects of English pronunciation and rhythm more difficult to master than others. While each individual has different needs and requires different support, your native language determines many of your specific accent targets.
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The features of your native language play a large role in the way you learn English (or any other foreign) language. English may have sounds that are completely new to you or sounds that are similar to your native language, but differ very slightly. The way you use pitch and stress may indicate differences in meaning in your native language, but not in English. Or you may find the opposite to be the case. For this reason, as a general rule, targets for native speakers of the same language are often consistent.
As a native speaker of Spanish, there are several aspects of English accent learning that you may find challenging. In sessions with English Accent Tutor, your instructor will complete an assessment to design an individualized treatment plan. You will focus first and foremost on targeting sounds and aspects of natural speech, such as vowel production and syllable rhythm. This will have the biggest impact on the ability for other people to understand you clearly. Provided below are some examples of targets you are likely to work on in your sessions with English Accent Tutor. The targets mentioned are common for native Spanish speakers due to the nature of the differences between English and Spanish. However, it is important to remember that your sessions will be based on your specific needs and may differ slightly from the information provided below.
As a native speaker of Spanish, there are several aspects of English accent learning that you may find challenging. In sessions with English Accent Tutor, your instructor will complete an assessment to design an individualized treatment plan. You will focus first and foremost on targeting sounds and aspects of natural speech, such as vowel production and syllable rhythm. This will have the biggest impact on the ability for other people to understand you clearly. Provided below are some examples of targets you are likely to work on in your sessions with English Accent Tutor. The targets mentioned are common for native Spanish speakers due to the nature of the differences between English and Spanish. However, it is important to remember that your sessions will be based on your specific needs and may differ slightly from the information provided below.
Common Sound Goals
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Spanish and English share many sounds, both consonants and vowels. Many are produced in the exact same manner. Others are produced similarly, with slight variations. Below are lists of vowel and consonant sounds that tend to give native Spanish speakers difficulty in English. Remember, at English Accent Tutor, we focus first and foremost on the sounds that will have the strongest impact on a listener’s ability to understand you.
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English orthography (spelling system) developed from an older form of the language and contains many spelling influences from different languages. Because of this, written English words frequently do not correspond to their pronunciation. For example, “creek,” “sea,” “she,” and “chief” are all pronounced using the /i/ sound, but are represented by different letters. Conversely, “ha,” “had,” and “hay” are all spelled with the letter “a,” but pronounced using three different vowel sounds. This is to say that trying to work on pronunciation from written English can complicate and confuse individuals. In your sessions, we will work on reviewing all the ways that a sound can be written, but will really focus on learning each sound without a spelling association.
Vowel Sounds |
Because a speaker’s production of vowel sounds greatly impacts a listener’s understanding and perception of accent1, our sessions will likely focus heavily on English vowel production.
One important characteristic of General American English is that it contains both tense and lax vowels. Tense vowels are often slightly longer in duration and more effortful to produce. They require your tongue to be stiff. Lax vowels, alternatively, are shorter and easier. Your tongue will be more relaxed to produce them. This distinction is very important in English as the tense /i/ in “bead” and the lax /I/ in “bid” differentiate the two separate words. The two vowels, however, are otherwise produced very similarly, with the same placement for the jaw. While this distinction is significant in English, it is less so in Spanish. Therefore, our coaching sessions focus on helping you learn the difference and producing each vowel correctly. Examples of lax vowels include
Try saying the words listed above aloud. Do they sound the same or very similar to you when you say them? You may find that it’s difficult to even discriminate these sounds as distinct from others. In sessions with English Accent Tutor, you will work on contrasting different vowel sounds as this method is proven to effectively improve vowel production.2 |
Consonant Sounds |
Single Consonant Sounds:
Some consonant sounds are common in English, but do not exist or are rarely used in Spanish dialects. Examples are
Other sounds that can cause confusion include /p, t, k/. Because Spanish speakers do not release much air when pronouncing these sounds, they can often sound like /b, d g/ to listeners.
Additionally, you may find that you can pronounce /b, d, g/ at the beginning of words, but have more trouble when they are at the ends of words. Final voiced consonants such as /b, d, g/ are often not voiced so they may sound like /p, t, k/, respectively. These sounds may also sound similar to English equivalents, but may sound different between vowel sounds. Other sounds that may cause confusion are the /b/ sound as in "bent", which may sound more like /v/ sound as in "vent"; the /d/ sound as in "den" may sound more like the /ð/ sound as in "then"; the /j/ sound as in "yes" is often pronounced with a /dʒ/ as in as "Jess." Consonant Clusters:
When two or more consonants are paired together without a vowel sound in between, it is called a “consonant cluster.” Consonant clusters are common in English both at the beginning and ends of words. Examples include
Additionally, because the /s/ sound plus another consonant sound does not exist at the beginning of words in Spanish, "spell" will sound like "a spell" and "space" will sound like "a space." It is important to remember that the sounds listed above are common targets for native Spanish speakers. Your accent program will be individualized based on your needs. Sessions will include auditory discrimination, tactile and visual cues, and minimal pairs to target your particular speech sound objectives. |
Rhythm and Timing in Natural Speech
Syllable Stress |
Syllable stress plays a large role in General American English, marking meaning and comparison. Stressed syllables are produced both more loudly and for a longer amount of time. They may also have a different pitch and tend to be more prominent than unstressed syllables. In English, these words carry more meaning. Look at the difference in the following questions:
Spanish also uses stress, but it is a syllable-timed language, meaning that all syllables take about the same length of time to pronounce. When Spanish speakers speak with even stress and rhythm, the clues listeners are used to hearing are absent.3 Additionally, the unstressed syllables retain the same vowel length as most stressed syllables. In English, however, speakers reduce unstressed syllables. Below are examples of the /ə/ sound, which is produced as “uh” in the middle of the mouth. It is frequently used for reduced vowels. Notice in the examples below that the stress in each word is not on the /ə/ and that the /ə/ can occur in different positions (e.g. first syllable, second syllable, etc) in a word.
Research has shown that the length of syllables serves a very important role in a listener’s ability to understand a non-native English speaker’s speech.1 Because of this, at English Accent Tutor you will practice recognizing and producing reduced syllables. You will also learn rules for when it is appropriate to reduce syllables and when it is not.
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References:
1 (Franklin, A.D, & Stoel-Gammon, C. (2014). Using multiple measures to document change in English vowels produced by Japanese, Korean, and Spanish speakers: The case for goodness and intelligibility. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23, 625-640.)
2 (Lee, S.A.S., & Sancibrian, S. (2013). Effectiveness of two different approaches to accent modification services for non-native English speakers of Korean background. Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and LInguistically Diverse Populations, 20(3):127. doi:10.1044/cds20.3.127)
3 Walter, C. (2001). Speakers of Spanish and Catalan. In M. Swan & B. Smith (Eds.), Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems (2nd ed.) (71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1 (Franklin, A.D, & Stoel-Gammon, C. (2014). Using multiple measures to document change in English vowels produced by Japanese, Korean, and Spanish speakers: The case for goodness and intelligibility. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23, 625-640.)
2 (Lee, S.A.S., & Sancibrian, S. (2013). Effectiveness of two different approaches to accent modification services for non-native English speakers of Korean background. Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and LInguistically Diverse Populations, 20(3):127. doi:10.1044/cds20.3.127)
3 Walter, C. (2001). Speakers of Spanish and Catalan. In M. Swan & B. Smith (Eds.), Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems (2nd ed.) (71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.