1.

SPANISH

1.1 Problems in terms of short and long vowel pairs

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 both in comprehension and
speaking. Relevant pairs include words such as bit/beat, not/note and
not/nought, batter/barter and pull/pool. As the pairs above are all pronounced
with different mouth positions as well as different lengths, focusing on that can
help students distinguish between the minimal pairs above even if they dont
fully get the hang of vowel length.

1.2 Problem in terms of consonants

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. Spanish speakers have no problem
producing a hissing sound, so the secret is to have them make the word directly
after that ssss and then practise reducing the length of that down to a short
initial s.

School English lessons in most Spanish-speaking countries also tend to

focus much more on reading and grammar than speaking and listening, and so
pronunciation work will both help redress the balance and be considered
worthwhile by students.

2.0

ITALIAN

2.1 Problem in terms of vowel

Pronunciation also poses problems for Italian speakers because the two
languages use quite different vowel systems. Italians may particularly have
problems with short vowels, which they tend to lengthen and with diphthongs,
which are rare in Italian.
Italian learners typically have problems with the vowel differences in
minimal pairs such as sheep / sheet bet / mat cot / coat, The tendency to

'swallow' weak vowels in English causes difficulties both

comprehension and in the production of natural-sounding speech.

in

listening

2.2 Problem in term of consonant

There are also a few consonants which give Italians problems, in particular
/h/, which they tend to overpronounce, and /w/ which they may pronounce as /v/.
The pronunciation of consonants includes the predictable difficulties with
words containing the letters th: (thin, this, other, lengths, etc.). Also problematic
is the failure to aspirate the h in words such as house, hill, and hotel (or to hypercorrect by adding an aspirated h to all words beginning with a vowel.) Most
Italian words end with a vowel, which often leads Italian learners to affix a short
vowel sound to in English ending with a consonant. This, together with
temptation to give full value or emphasis to all syllables, results in the
stereotypical Italian production of sentences that sound like: I at soup for
lunch.

Italian speakers could practice very hard as practice makes perfect.

Practices using cassettes, or tapes and listen to those things frequently.

Spanish
Problem:
their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowels.
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.
Cause:
the differences between the two languages' sound systems. English has 12
vowels and eight diphthongs, while Spanish has only five of each.
Solution:
Practices using cassettes, or tapes and listen to those things frequently.

Italian
Problem:
have problems with short vowels, which they tend to lengthen and with
diphthongs, which are rare in Italian
Most Italian words end with a vowel, which often leads Italian learners to affix a
short vowel sound to in English ending with a consonant
Cause:
the two languages use quite different vowel systems.
Solution:
School English lessons in Italy should focus on speaking and listening as much as
reading and grammar.