Greetings, anybody knows a Thai with prononciation problems, who managed to finally learn how to say words ending by T, ST, CT, HT as in street, past, strict and straight ?

 

Is there any class somewhere to help people with prononciation problems ?

 

Have you been able to help someone ? How to do ?

 

Thanks for your help.

When native speakers speak English, we are frequently exhaling air at the end of a word. This is true for consanants such as "s" and "t", blends such as "ch" and "sh", and especially the plosive consonants "k" and "p". Demonstrate yourself, by putting a small piece of paper in front of your mouth, and exaggerate a little to make the point.

Two particular points I have learned:

-  for "ch", tell them to put half of a "t" sound before the "ch". So, "church" looks like:  (t)chur(t)ch

- for "x", have them say "ks", so teach "box" as "boks"

 

As these sounds don't exist for many Thais they need to exercise their mouths and breathing to achieve this. As with other language speakers some simply have an inability to do this for others it is easy...remember native EL speakers have problems too...e. g..the letter r and Irish pronunciation of "th". In Thailand sticking you tongue out is both rude and embarassing yet it is required for TH....and L too!

You will notice that there is a group of Thai people who can't pucker their lips...

 

There is also a listening side - A Thai friend once asked me the difference between R and L.

I replied raw rua and law ling emphasising both the R and the L.....he replied "Ah, just the same then, no difference".

 

39 minutes ago, Loeilad said:

As these sounds don't exist for many Thais they need to exercise their mouths and breathing to achieve this. As with other language speakers some simply have an inability to do this for others it is easy...remember native EL speakers have problems too...e. g..the letter r and Irish pronunciation of "th". In Thailand sticking you tongue out is both rude and embarassing yet it is required for TH....and L too!

You will notice that there is a group of Thai people who can't pucker their lips...

 

There is also a listening side - A Thai friend once asked me the difference between R and L.

I replied raw rua and law ling emphasising both the R and the L.....he replied "Ah, just the same then, no difference".

 

 

Correct pronunciation of the letter "L" does not require the tongue to stick out. The tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.

 

Correct pronunciation is all about accent reduction - the adding of sounds that are not in the L1. Over emphasis of both sound and mouth shape/tongue position and of course the correct pronunciation by the teacher should help the students.

You need to use drawn cut-away profiles of faces in order to show/explain initial position of tongue, final position of tongue (if different), movement of tongue (if any) and shape of mouth.

 

You can then practise using minimal pairs activities.

 

http://www.shiporsheep.com/

 

 

11 hours ago, muzmurray said:

 

Correct pronunciation of the letter "L" does not require the tongue to stick out. The tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.

 

Correct pronunciation is all about accent reduction - the adding of sounds that are not in the L1. Over emphasis of both sound and mouth shape/tongue position and of course the correct pronunciation by the teacher should help the students.

 

11 hours ago, muzmurray said:

 

Correct pronunciation of the letter "L" does not require the tongue to stick out. The tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth.

 

Correct pronunciation is all about accent reduction - the adding of sounds that are not in the L1. Over emphasis of both sound and mouth shape/tongue position and of course the correct pronunciation by the teacher should help the students.

No it doesn't -ti touches the back of the teeth and curls which is too similar to sticking it out - Thai speakers use an "or" sound instead as it doesn't require the tongue to go forward that far...../.none of this helps if they can't actually HEAR the sound difference anyway.

Thanks for the replies.

Anybody knows a good private tutor in  Pattaya area ? I need someone who really knows how to help with this kind of problem...

The normal stress put on a part of a word can also be important.

In English English we put the stress on the first part of the word.

Australians place the stress on the last part of the word - as do Thai people speaking Thai.

The word mathematics shortened to "math" in American English and the correct "maths" in English English; Thai children will often pronounce as "mat".

You may find if you make a short list of words, including those with the letters D, K, S, P etc and put words such as Light, Right, Left one after each other, it will help with getting the child to understand "hard" sounds.

The "th" sound is one of the hardest and comes with practice.   Make a face to show where the tongue should be.

Good luck for your search for a tutor, just remember when the child is at school, depending on the teachers ability to speak English, the child will go back to pronouncing the school way ( often being told they are saying the word wrongly if it is different to that of the teacher )

 

28 minutes ago, Speedo1968 said:

The normal stress put on a part of a word can also be important.

In English English we put the stress on the first part of the word.

Australians place the stress on the last part of the word - as do Thai people speaking Thai.

The word mathematics shortened to "math" in American English and the correct "maths" in English English; Thai children will often pronounce as "mat".

You may find if you make a short list of words, including those with the letters D, K, S, P etc and put words such as Light, Right, Left one after each other, it will help with getting the child to understand "hard" sounds.

The "th" sound is one of the hardest and comes with practice.   Make a face to show where the tongue should be.

Good luck for your search for a tutor, just remember when the child is at school, depending on the teachers ability to speak English, the child will go back to pronouncing the school way ( often being told they are saying the word wrongly if it is different to that of the teacher )

 

 

You might want to read the below page before making such a ridiculous statement.

 

http://www.really-learn-english.com/word-stress.html