Most people would agree that a strong Spanish accent is usually easier to understand than a similarly strong French or Portuguese one. However, the pronunciation can cause considerable strain for the listener and seem somewhat harsh and flat. To get a clearer understanding of why Spanish speakers erroneously pronounce English, it is important to look at where these errors stem from.
1.Vowels (short and long)
Perhaps the single biggest pronunciation problem for Spanish speakers is that their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowels. They often stretch all vowel sounds out too much and confuse pairs of short and long English vowel sounds like “ship” and “sheep”. “bit” and “beat”, “pull” and “pool”.
2. Other vowels
Spanish speakers find the distinction between the very similar sounds in “cat” and “cut” difficult to notice and produce. Perhaps more importantly, they can also have problems with the two closest sounds to an “o” sound in “not” making “boat” and “bought” difficult to distinguish. The unstressed schwa “er” sound in “computer” does not exist in Spanish, and neither do the closest long sounds in “fur” and “her”.
They tend to find it much more difficult to recognise rhotic versions of vowel sounds. Rhoticity is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant /r/ by speakers of English. It is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified including the English dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada. (ref: Wikipedia)
3. Consonants
Words written with “b” and “v” are mostly pronounced identically, making this perhaps the most common spelling mistake in Spanish. There is also no distinction between the first sounds in “yacht” and “jot” in Spanish. There may also be some confusion between the first sound in “jeep” and its unvoiced equivalent in “cheap” (a common sound in Spanish).
The “ch” in “cheese” may also be confused with the “sh” in “she’s”, as the latter sound does not exist in Spanish.
Spanish words never start with an “s” sound, and words which are similar to English tend to have an initial “es” sound instead, as in escuela (school). This is very common in Spanish speakers’ pronunciation of English as well, leading to pronunciations like “I am from Espain”.
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.
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” as in ‘guay’ and can be pronounced “gw”, sometimes making it difficult to work out if a “g” or “w” is what is meant.
As a “z” is pronounced as “s” or “th” (depending on the speaker, as in the two pronunciations of “Barcelona” and “zoo”), a “z” sound does not exist in Spanish.
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” as in “sore”.
The Spanish “j” in Jorgé (similar to the Scottish “ch” in “loch”) and the English “h” in “hope” rarely if ever cause communication problems but can be something to work on if students are interested in accent reduction.
4. Number of syllables
Particularly when it comes to final consonant clusters in English, Spanish-speakers can suffer both from adding extra syllables (e.g. three syllables for “advanced” with the final “e” pronounced) and swallowing sounds to make it match the desired number of syllables (e.g. “fifths” sounding like “fiss”). With words that are similar in Spanish and English, they can also often try to make the English word match the Spanish number of syllables.
5. Alphabet
The names and pronunciations of the letters of the alphabet in Spanish can cause confusions between these pairs in both listening and speaking, e.g.
A/E
A/R
E/I
C/K
G/J
Solutions
Pronunciation problems can be addressed both inside and outside the classroom. Most English Language Learning Textbooks such as Face to Face and English File provide pronunciation tips accompanied by listening exercises. To practise at home, English pronunciation Apps are available on Google Play to download on any mobile device. Kepham Education English Pronunciation, and Nido English Pronunciation are among some of the popular ones.
References:
- Wikipedia
- TEFL.net (Alex Case, July 2012)