Pronunciation problems

This is a brief guide on some of the problems Japanese students have with English pronunciation.

Common problems

problem	examples
R and L sounds (listening and speaking).	Glass and Grass, Rice and Lice.
V and B sounds (listening and speaking).	Very and Berry.

Reasons

Glass Grass Berry (use with Very) A kitten (sleep - use with slip) Slipping on a banana (use slip with sleep) Lice Rice Sheep (use with ship) Sheep (use with ship) Ship (use with sheep) Ship (use with sheep) A frog (use leap with lip) Lip (use with leap) 1/13

These are some pictures that can be used as pairs to demonstrate the difference between some sounds. For flashcards with captions, see below.

One of the reasons for the problems is that the Japanese language does not have all the sounds that the English language does. For example, the Japanese language does not distinguish between r and l. There is something in between, but not really one or the other.

Activities to use

• Listening Pyramid
• Ultimate Listening Game
• Katakana Vs English

Flashcards with captions

Pronunciation Practice

This section was copied from the sixth edition of Team Taught Pizza.

R - L	R - L Combinations	TH - S Combinations	SH - S	V - B
raw - law river - liver rake - lake right - light race - lace	grass - glass free - flee crash - flash present - pleasant courage - college pray - play grow - glow	thank - tank thaw - saw thing - sing thumb - sum thick - sick think - sink thigh - sigh mouth - mouse tenth - tense worth - worse	sea - she said - shed same - shame so - show suit - shoot	very - berry vend - bend vest - best vet - bet vote - boat

See Also

• Phonics
• Listening Pyramid
• Ultimate Listening Game

Notes

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