English Pronunciation

WorkshopAnita L. Maloney, MSCCC/SLP

1. GO FISH

2. MOUTH YOGA

3. DIFFICULT SOUNDS

5. STRESS

Agenda

GO FISH RULES

A. “Do you have the letter ______?”B. “NO, GO FISH” (Next person asks) OR “YES” - give A the card and

A. gets another turn and asks a different person.

WINNER: Person who gets the most matches.

AMERICAN ENGLISH

Vowelsa

u

o

i

e

“Y”

AMERICAN ENGLISH

CONSONANTS

B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X “Y” Z

Mouth Yoga!

TAKE NOTES!!!

SIMILARITIES

• We all want to communicate and be understood

• We all want to share

• We all communicate • We all have ideas and our own way of presenting information• We all speak (there are others that are unable to use their voice

to speak but communicate in other ways)

We are born with the ability to learn any language

CELEBRATE DIVERSITY

TOGETHER WE ARE ONE

American English has sounds in it that your language may not have. This makes it difficult to hear and produce some of the sounds

Your language has a different music to it than American English

An American adult English speaker will have the same difficulty learning your primary language for the same reasons

DIFFERENCES

Different set of consonants Voicing

Overview of the Differences

between English and Tamil

Nasal Production“Borrowed” words from

English

Stress Differences

SOUND DIFFERENCESASIAN LANGUAGES

• May not have a letter system - the word is the picture• Meaning may be conveyed by tone • American English may have more vowel sounds• The sounds /l/, /r/ and /n/ may be difficult to perceive or hear• The sounds TH sounds, /b/ and /v/ may not exist

• Vowel production is different and there are more vowel sounds in English than Spanish

• Similar consonant difficulties with TH, /f/, /v/ and /b/• Voicing differences of consonants

SPANISH LANGUAGE

TAKE NOTES!!!

Thought Think

ThousandThirtyThreatThin

ThroughThreeThief

Thumb

TH WordsInitial Position (Voiceless)

The

There

Though

Their

Then

Them

They

That

Initial Position (Voiced)

WeatherFather

MotherBrotherLeatherBotherOther

AnotherBathing Suit

Medial Position (Voiced)

BirthdayToothbrush

BathtubBathroom

ToothpasteMouthwashEarthquake

WealthyHealthy

Toothache

Medial Position (Voiceless)

WithMythMothBath

MouthPath

TeethToothBothMath

Final Position (Voiceless)

Bathe

Smooth

Breathe

Soothe

Final Position (Voiced)

Tongue Twisters!!!!

1. The thirty thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday

2. Something in a thirty acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles

thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew

the thug- although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand

thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty

year old thug thought of that morning.

TONGUE TWISTERS - TH

th - Tongue Twisters Continued

3. I thought a thought. But the thought I thought I thought wasn’t the

thought I thought I thought.

4. Three thin thieves thought a thousand thoughts. Now if three thin

thieves thought a thousand thoughts how many thoughts did each thin

thief think?

5. Father, mother, sister, brother - hand in hand with one another.

TAKE NOTES!!!

WHAT IS STRESS ?STRESS when speaking is what we give emphasis or importance to.

At the single word level and single syllable level there is stress only in one place or on the whole word.

For Example:

CatMilkReadWriteRunPlay

• Stress at the word level is generally on the first syllable

of the word. This is due to the Germanic language base to English.

However, due to other language influences such as French,

Latin,Greek, etcetera the stress in an English word may

vary

• eager engineer Egyptian unique

Examples of suffixes creating movement of stress.

democrat democratic democracyempath empathicempathy empatheticsympathy sympatheticphotograph photographic photography

Suffixes create movement of

stress or a change in the

melody/rhythm of the word.

For two syllable words the stress is at the beginning for NOUNS and ADJECTIVES and on the second syllable in VERBS.

For words with suffixes* (-er, -est or -es, -ed, -ly, -ite) the stress usually stays with the first syllable

Also for words with -ia, -ial, -ible, -ify, -logy, -ify, -ual the stress stays with the first syllable

For suffixes* -ate, -ize, -ist and -ous the stress is on the second syllable before the suffix (amputate, mysterious congratulate)

The stress is before the suffix* -ic as in optic, electric, basic Suffixes* -tion, -ian, -ity create stress in the syllable before

(vacation, librarian, necessity)

*suffix - a word ending**prefix - a syllable or sound at the beginning

of the word

Tips at the word level

EXAMPLES OF NOUN VS. VERB STRESS IN 2 SYLLABLE WORDS REVIEW

SUSPECT SUSPECT

CONFLICT

PROJECT

PERMIT

PRESENT PRESENT

PROJECT

CONFLICT

PERMIT

NOUNS VERBS