does anyone know a good website that shows how to teach the english sounds that Japanese have difficulty with??? LIke ones that show where the tongue goes and such... Tanks!
Teachign Pronuncication
does anyone know a good website that shows how to teach the english sounds that Japanese have difficulty with??? LIke ones that show where the tongue goes and such... Tanks!
Originally Posted by Hyakuman
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
However, I find stuff like this isn't all that useful for teaching people how to make the sounds. Knowing that in order to make the 'ng' sound you obstruct your oral cavity by pressing your soft palate with the rear portion of your tongue doesn't do much to increase your ability to do so. Instructions based one what the student can already do are much more effective. Something like "Prepare your mouth to say 'g', then say 'n' while holding that position," will probably get you quicker results.
Now, if you don't already know what's going on in your own mouth when you make certain sounds, something like the link I gave is good to find out.
Getting my students to make reasonably approximations of English phonemes isn't too difficult usually. It's just a matter of constantly riding them to do so, rather than slipping back into using Japanese ones, so that it becomes habitual. There's also a matter of muscle development that needs to take place. Different languages use different muscles in different ways. I did dedicated phonics and pronunciation lessons with my first-years for the first month of the school year this year, and several of them mentioned that their faces got tired. It's paid off quite well, though.
Last edited by ampersand; November 12th, 2008 at 21:34.
Re: Teachign Pronuncication
Just think about how you make the sound yourself. Perhaps consider just inverting how you learned to make Japanese phonemes.
For example: how did you learn to do らりるれろ？ Probably by trying to combine the lip/mouth movement of "R" with the tongue movement of "L". So to teach L, just have them watch your mouth stay perfectly still (you can exaggerate) while your tongue does the movement. Oddly, although らりるれろ sounds more like R than L to most people, I find that teaching R can be a bit harder. You have to teach them to stop using the tongue. And I'm still unsure of where the tongue goes on R: it feels like it's just hanging out somewhere other than touching the roof of the mouth.
In the same way, you probably learned ふ as a combination of F and H. When you say "F", you touch your teeth to the lower lip a bit. ふ seems more or less like H, except that you kind of blow over your lip to give it an F-like sound.
To say "th", put your tongue beneath your top teeth. To say "V", bite your lower lip and let it roll off.
These kinds of simple directions are, I think, the way to go. They can be easily illustrated using yourself as an example, combined with simple diagrams on the blackboard and maybe your hands.
Re: Teachign Pronuncication
Oh GOSH I have had endless recitation practice with my 1st years. For those hard sounds like -v, -th, -r, etc... I always hold the sound and have them watch what I do with my mouth. Then I have them repeat the sound as a class and go to them individually to check while demonstrating the sound again. They always get it exactly right when they copy me slowly!With -th, the room sounded like it was full of bugs and for -r I tell them to ERRRR like they're angry (and maybe have them bite they're tongue while they practice -r so they don't use it).
Re: Teachign Pronuncication
Biting their tongues? Interesting idea! I'm not sure I quite understand, though. To prevent them doing the らりるれろ tongue-touch, they'd have to be biting like the tips of their tongues, right?
Yeah, bite the tip.
How on earth does this work? Making an r sound requires pulling your tongue away from the front of your mouth.
It comes out kinda awkward and doesn't always work, but I used it to practice the -re sound of "really". Mostly to get that errrrr sound. I don't know, try biting your tongue and make an -r sound.
I have. I sound like a retarded cow, if anything. There's nothing r-like about it.
Well, whatever... it works for me. I don't know what else to say.
Re: Teachign Pronuncication
Anytime I make advances in pronunciation, my JTEs ruin it. I don't go to every class and even when I'm in class I'll try to say it the correct way then my JTE will reinforce the wrong way.
Re: Teachign Pronuncication
To teach the l sound, tell them to put the tip of their tongue in front of their top teeth. It's not the normal shape a native's mouth makes, but it makes the same sound, and it's impossible for them to make an R sound when the tongue is there.
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