EMI one-day course

English Pronunciation Basics for

Cantonese Speakers
 Pronunciation
Consists of the phonemes (sounds from
alphabetic letters)
24 consonant sounds
20 vowels sounds
and stress, rhythm and intonation
 Cantonese speakers
Cantonese is in a different language family
than English
English is a Germanic language in the Indo-
European family
Chinese is in the Sino-Tibetan family
This results in very different ways of making
sounds with our mouths.
 Strategy for 90-minute lesson
Focus on the areas where English and
Cantonese are most different
Practice some of these starting with vowels
and consonants
 Th- sound
Three-free
Thin-fin
Thread-Fred
Death-deaf
They-day
Those-doze
Words from your
subject area:
 l-n-sound
Lot-not
Night-light
Life-knife
Lame-name
Line-nine
Words from your
subject area:
 V-sound
Vic-wick
Wine-vine
Why-vie
Advice
Arrive
Five
Words from your
subject area:
 l-r-(w)-sound
lamp ramp
lace race
lake rake (awake)
lock rock (wok)
light right (white)
load road
Words from your
subject area:
 S-sh-sound
Sea-she
She sells seashells on
the seashore.
Words from your
subject area:
 Most difficult word
What do you think is the most difficult word
to pronounce in the English language?
 Why is English so hard to
sometimes

pronounce?



five-[sIkss]
Task: Consonant clusters
Partner A
How do you spell:

Grow
Bloom
Flea
Fry
Clock
 Task: Consonant clusters
Partner B
How do you spell:

Grass
Free
Frame
Flute
Crown
 Vowels
/i/ /I/
Sheep- ship
Beat-bit
Chip-cheap
Seed-sit
Words from your
subject area:
 Vowel length
Perhaps the most characteristic feature of a
Cantonese accent in English is the clipping of
vowels on words ending in a consonant.
Voiced consonants (g,d,b,z,v) at the end of a
word require the vowel to be longer.
Compare these two words and listen to the
vowel sound
Dock and dog
 Vowel Lengthening
Pick-pig Feet-feed
Lived-lift Knees-niece
Lock-log Lice- lies
Tab-tap Plays-place
Miss- Ms. Proof-prove
Lake-leg Belief-believe
Save-safe Excuse (n)-excuse (v)
 Lengthening Exercises
Example:
Whats a cap?
A kind of hat.
Whats a cab?
A taxi
 Lengthening Exercises
Partner A
Whats a seat?
Whats a seed?
How do you spell tight?
How do you spell tide?
What does wrote mean?
What does rode mean?
 Lengthening Exercises
Partner B
What is a rope for?
What is a robe for?
What does bright mean?
What does bride mean?
How do you spell beg?
How do you spell bake?
 Regular past tense
Walked (t) Decide
Liked (t) Want
Laughed (t) Need
Closed (d) Add
Filled (d) Start
Smiled (d) Rent
Agreed (d) Crowd
Hugged (d) Visit
Planned (d)
 Past tense exercise
Partner A Partner B
Wash Plant
Cause Wait
Arrange Work
Load Divide
Cause
Open
Calculate
Save
Subtract
Practice Add
Multiply Record
 Nouns and verbs
Verbs have a longer (last) syllable
Verbs What are the associated nouns?
Use (it) What use is it?
Prove (it) Show me the proof.
Save (it) Put your money in a safe.
Excuse (me) Thats a good excuse.
Advise (me) Give me some advice.
Believe (me) He has strange beliefs.
Relieve (me) The device is broken.
I need some relief.
 Word stress
Word stress in English is so important that it is
sometimes more important than the actual
letter sounds.
I can swim. [kn]
I cant swim. [knt]
All words of two syllables or more have stress
on at least one syllable.
 Word stress
7/11
Seven eleven
There is no set system but there are some
patterns.
For example, what pattern do you notice:
Reduction, suggestion
Politician, registration
Participation examination
Identification, electrification
Stress on second last syllable
Reduction, suggestion
Politician, registration
Participation examination
Identification, electrification
 More stress patterns
Strategic Main stress comes on
Economic the syllable before:
Statistic ic
Biology omy,
Geology ery ,
Astronomy ogy,
Policy ity
equality
 Where is the stress?
Patterns do not hold for all endings, e.g., ment

Argument
Establishment
Regiment
Achievement
 Stress on nouns and verbs
Nouns (try making a question starting with Verbs (try asking a question starting with
Is it a Does it

Record Record
Object Object
Permit Permit
Suspect Suspect
Conflict Conflict
Contract Contract
Increase Increase
Produce Produce
 English rhythm
I really like eating apples.
I really like eating apples.
.

Content words tend to be stressed while

function words are unstressed.
In Cantonese, all words tend to be equally
stressed.
 English rhythm
The girl is interested in increasing her
vocabulary.

The girl is interested in increasing her

vocabulary.
 Practice rhythm
I ate a chicken salad sandwich
In an hour, Ill be ready to go to school.
He eats three full meals each day.
Do you like the photo on your passport?
My cat eats fish and she likes to hunt mice in
the garden.
Make sure you study for the test during the
holiday.
 Rhythm
I ate a chicken salad sandwich
In an hour, Ill be ready to go to school.
He eats three full meals each day.
Do you like the photo on your passport?
My cat eats fish and she likes to hunt mice in
the garden.
Make sure you study for the test during the
holiday.
 Intonation
English uses rising and falling tone to indicate
meaning?
For example
Falling tone indicates the end of a sentence.
Rising tone indicates a yes/no question.
Rising also indicates a list
Get some bananas, oranges, apples and lemons.
 Coffee or tea?
Would you like coffee or tea?
Two stress and intonation patterns
and different expected answers.

Would you like coffee or tea? (Choose one)

Would you like coffee or tea? (yes or no)

 Common teachers question?
Either or

Is the answer 2 or 4?
CPU or RAM?
Melody or harmony?
3-dimensional or 2-dimensional?
Underhand or overhand?
Think of two words or concepts in your own
teaching that you ask this type of question.
Why is spoken English so hard to
understand?
Is he busy?
Ed
edited
it.
ededitit
 Informal contractions
which you dont learn in school

Wanna- I wanna study English. (want to)

Gonna- Im gonna study English. (going to)
Hafta- I hafta study English. (have to)
Gotta- Ive gotta study English. (got to)
Shoulda- I shoulda studied English. (should
have)
Do you [j]
 Informal sentences
What are you going to do tonight?
[wdygndutnait]
Do you want to go to a movie tonight?
[jwangotmuvitnait]
 Finding the stress in tech words
alphanumeric, strenuous, sport
asynchronous, etiquette, calisthenics
proprietary, mnemonic revenue, allotment,
Acrylics, Assemblage, Merchandiser,
Maquette, Rhythm Proprietorship
disassembly, utensils, recipe
ergonomics,
translucent, malleable,
adhesive
 Classroom instructional language
http://www.slideshare.net/josemariaagulleiro
/classroom-language-simple-instructions

http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/traini
ng/
 Dictionary help
Check online dictionaries for sample tech
words pronunciation

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/ac
rylic
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/pr
oprietary
Requests?
 Pronunciation help
http://www.howjsay.com/