Cindy Yamileth Castro 20171030627 

Reina Paola Barrientos 20171030327

 Language learners are constantly exposed to challenges in their learning process. It is appropriate to be able to identify the different factors that play an essential role in the journey of learning English. In this way, recognize the weaknesses is important to start with the activities to correct several skills that need attention. Therefore, this leads to focusing on the errors, a normal thing for students. It is considered by Norrish as a systematic deviation that happens when a learner has not learnt something, and consistently gets it wrong. Consequently, there is a method denominated Error Analysis that is concerned with the compilation, study, and analysis of errors made by second language learners and aims at investigating aspects of second language acquisition.

There are mainly two major sources of errors in second language learning. The first source is interference from the native language while the second source can be attributed to intralingual and developmental factors. The native language of learners plays a significant role in learning a second language. Errors due to the influence of the native language are called interlingual errors. Interlingual errors are also called transfer or interference errors. The view that the native language plays a mostly negative role was emphasized as early as the forties and tile fifties by Fries (1945) and Lado (1957). Although recently researchers tend to minimize interlingual errors and emphasize intralingual and developmental errors that are due to the difficulty of the second/target language. Intralingual and developmental factors include the following: simplification, overgeneralization, hypercorrection, faulty teaching, fossilization, avoidance, inadequate learning, and false concepts hypothesized. 

Teachers can and should correct all errors committed by their students. The following are general guidelines in correcting second language learning errors:

I.             Teachers should correct errors affecting intelligibility, errors that interfere with the general meaning and understandability of utterances. In this connection, teachers should concentrate on correcting global errors more than local errors.

II.            High frequency and generality errors should be corrected more often than less frequent errors. For example, the omission of the third person Singular s is an error of high frequency and generality.

III.          Teachers should put more emphasis on correcting errors affecting a large percentage of their students. This factor is clearly related to the second factor above.

IV.          Stigmatizing or irritating errors should be paid more attention to. Pupils who come from lower socioeconomic classes are conscious of and very sensitive to ridicule about their informal variety of language from students from higher socioeconomic classes who speak a more formal and prestigious variety of the language.

V.           Finally, errors relevant to a pedagogical focus should receive more attention from the teacher than other errors. For example, if the focus of the lesson is the use of the present perfect tense, the correction of errors involving prepositions, articles, and demonstratives in this lesson should not be emphasized by the teacher because if he/she did, the attention of the students would be distracted from the focus of the lesson which, in this instance, is the use of the present perfect tense. 

Common English pronunciation errors made by Spanish native speakers.

Short and long vowel pairs

Explanation:

One of the biggest pronunciation problems for Spanish speakers are that their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowel sounds. They often stretch all vowel sounds out too much and confuse pairs of short and long English vowel sounds like “ship” and “sheep” both in comprehension and speaking.

 Exercise I

Instructions: Record yourself pronouncing the following words and then listen to the record and try to distinguish the differences between a short and a long vowel sound.

bit / beat

not / note

batter / barter

pull / poole

hat / hate

set / seat

kit / kite

pan / pain

tub / tube

cut / cute

Exercise II

Instructions: In your notebook, group the words that correspond to long vowel sounds in columns and in another column the words with short sounds.

-Home          -Thin

-Love            -Leave

-Cat              -Cheap

-Pool             -Left

-Lost              -Eat

Consonants

Explanation:

Most of the time, Spanish speakers read the consonants of English, as they were the same as in Spanish, but this is not the case. These are the most common errors that Spanish speakers do trying to pronounce consonants:

·       The “ch” in “cheese” may also be confused with the “sh” in “she’s”, as the latter sound does not exist in Spanish.

 

·         Unlike most languages, the “th” sounds in “thing” and “bathe” do exist in Spanish. The problem with “bathe” is that the sound is just a variation on mid or final “d” for Spanish speakers and so some work on understanding the distinction between initial “d” and initial “th” is usually needed before it can be understood and produced in an initial position.

 

·         Some speakers also pronounce a final “d” similar to an unvoiced “th”. “d” and “t” can also be a problem at the end of words, as can “thing”/“think” and sometimes “thing”/“thin” or even “ring” and “rim”. In general, Spanish consonant sounds vary more by position than English consonants do.

 

·         Although a “w” sound exists in Spanish, it is spelt “gu” and can be pronounced “gw”, sometimes making it difficult to work out if a “g” or “w” is what is meant.

 

·         Although a Spanish “r” is different from most English ones, it rarely causes comprehension problems. However, the English “r” can seem so soft to Spanish speakers that it is sometimes perceived as “w”.

Exercise I

Instructions: Read the following words aloud and try to exaggerate the sounds of the consonants mentioned above and try to notice the difference between the sounds. Practice as many times as you consider necessary.

chair / shape

catch / brush

thank / breath

three / both

door / absolved

dry / absented

wader / web

water / wake

race / rainbow

rose / rabbit

Exercise II

Instructions: Watch the next video and repeat the words with it. Then, here you have more words with evolves all the consonants sounds to practice.

-soup

-bat

-light

-dog

-cheese

-whale

-mother

-thumb

-write

-thought

 Vowel sound added to words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant

Explanation

 Spanish speakers sometimes add an ‘e’ to the beginning of words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant. As a result, you pronounce the words ‘street’ and ‘school’ as ‘estreet’ or ‘eschool’. This happens because words in Spanish don’t normally begin with a consonant cluster, so sounds like sp, st, sk, sl, sm always have a vowel sound before.

Exercise I

Instructions: Try saying these tongue twisters five times. First slowly. Then get quicker and quicker.

-       SpongeBob SquarePants speaks Spanish at school.

 

-       Spyder spy spilled a spoon of spicy spice on a split of splinter

 

-       A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

 

-       Thin sticks, skim bricks, thick skids

 

-       How many snacks could a snack stacker stack, if a snack stacker snacked stacked snacks?

 

-       Smite the smelly smoking smiting smoker.

 

-       Smell the sweet smiling flowers.

 

-       Smoky smooth barbecued s'mores are delicious.

 

-       Smart Smitty Smith smelled an apple smothered with peanut butter

 

-       Spencer speaks Spanish with his friend, Spike, at the sporting event in Spain 

Exercise II

Instructions: Write the next column of words in your notebook, then look for a mirror and pronounce each word. Be aware of the movements in your mouth.

scream

screen

screech

scribble

scrimp

speed

spin

spit

spill

spirit 

Stress nouns, not adjectives

Explanation

In Spanish, adjectives are stressed more than nouns. In English, nouns are stressed more than adjectives. Be aware of how your Spanish skills are influencing your English pronunciation. Start practice! 

Exercise I

Instructions: Considering the following phrases. Where would you place the stress? Read out loud.

1.    She’s a nice girl.

2.    That’s an amazing idea.

3.    It is a hot summer

4.    The flower is beautiful

5.    The dog is cute

6.    He’s a clever teacher

7.    That’s a small office

8.    Look at that black horse!

9.    The music was loud

10. This book is expensive 

Exercise II

Instructions: Listen to the audios and notice the difference.

 I asked you to buy me a bunch of red roses.

I asked you to buy me a bunch of red roses.

Now it is your turn, in pairs read the following sentences and circle where the correct stress is.

1.    The boy dances in the wet rain

2.    The woman wears pink boots

3.    The giraffe eats the green leaves

4.    The dog splashes in the cold water

5.    What a delicious taste of this apple

6.    My sister is a strong girl

7.    Tom is a naughty boy

8.    Jack is an angry man

9.    She is wearing a colorful outfit

10. This guy has an extraordinary talent 

 Reflection 1 

The experience of detecting pronunciation errors in Spanish speakers and designing exercises for error correction was completely a challenge. The research left positive points in my own learning process, read about how different aspects are involved in this important performance was a reminder to keep paying attention in order to correct myself in the present and in a near future. As to designing the exercises, I found myself having doubts if the exercise will really work in others as work in me, that was my only difficulty in this part of the project. It is interesting and a true compromise to inform in an educational way. While I was observing, I realize that the common errors regarding English pronunciation are for the interference of the native language, which definitely is something that I had experienced before. 

I enjoyed the project, I read sources that helped me a lot. I agree with this kind of project because is a tool that we can use as material for our own learning process. The learned can mark a starting point from which we can all benefit. Knowing how to identify errors is essential for students and teachers. I plan to use this event to be more aware of every single detail to improve as a student, in my future as a teacher, I hope to be in a good position to help and be an instrument.

 Reflection 2 

Undoubtedly, there are many errors that Spanish speakers make when learning to speak English, especially in pronunciation, since we always associate the sounds of English with those of our language. Researching on the pronunciation errors we make, I have realized that it is quite necessary to learn how to pronounce correctly before anything else. Designing the exercises has been a bit difficult since I do not have much experience practicing pronunciation, but in part, I have also learned new learning techniques and what I would like to start doing to improve my own pronunciation.

I liked working on this project because as I mentioned before, I didn't have much idea of how to practice my English pronunciation, but doing the research and seeing the finished work has helped me a lot. During the investigation of the errors, I learned many things, there are many small errors that sometimes we do not even identify but that are still errors and that can affect the way we want to communicate something. As a future English teacher, I would like to prioritize and implement various techniques so that my students learn to pronounce well and do many vocalization exercises so that their mouths also get used to the sounds of English.

 References 

Tefl.net. 2021. Pronunciation Problems For Spanish-Speaking Learners Of English | Teflnet. [online] Available at: <https://www.tefl.net/elt/articles/teacher-technique/spanish-speaker-pronunciation-problems/>

Most Common Pronunciation Errors for Spanish Speakers Learning English. Accent Modification, Communication Skills: Packard. (2020). Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://packardcommunications.com/pronunciation-english-spanish/.

6 Pronunciation Mistakes Spanish Speakers Make in English (And how to Fix Them) | Oxford House Barcelona. Oxford House. (2020). Retrieved 29 July 2021, from https://oxfordhousebcn.com/en/6-pronunciation-mistakes-spanish-speakers-make-in-english-and-how-to-fix-them/.

 Ef.com. (2020). Retrieved 30 July 2021, from https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/tongue-twisters-english/.

Touchie, H. (2019). Jalt-publications.org. Retrieved 30 July 2021, from https://jalt-publications.org/sites/default/files/pdf-article/art5_8.pdf.

What is error? What is error analysis? Describe the types of error, source/cause of error... Talimenam.blogspot.com. (2014). Retrieved 30 July 2021, from https://talimenam.blogspot.com/2014/12/what-is-error-what-is-error-analysis.html.