We have been running elocution lessons since 2006 and taught many students from Spanish-speaking countries. Their accent is quite strong and it takes time and effort to make their English clear.
We have identified four areas of English speech which are particularly difficult for them:
1. English spelling and pronunciation are not identical. English inherited a lot of foreign words, including Latin and they kept the original spelling but anglicised the pronunciation. Some English sounds do not exist in Spanish. For example, the sound / ʌ/ as in "come" does not exist in Spanish and it is spelt with the letter "o". Spanish speakers would pronounce it with the /o/ sound.
Another example is the use of schwa. Schwa does not exist in Spanish, whilst in English schwa is the most important sound. It is used in unstressed syllables and it is very important to master fluency in English because it is used in unstressed words.
2. There are long and short vowels in English, in Spanish, all vowels have the same length.
3. English consonants are crisp and well-articulated, whilst in Spanish consonants are softened. Spanish speakers of English often do not make a distinction between /b/ and /v/, /n/ and /m/, particularly at the end of the word. We suggest that you practise particularly these consonants because they do not exist in Spanish:
/h/ is in “hat”, /j/ as in “yes”, /dʒ/ as in “juice”, /v/ as in “victory” and /z/ as in “zoo”.
4. In good English speech, pronouncing/t/ and /d/ endings is important. Spanish often do not pronounce them at all.
What can we recommend to overcome the difficulties mentioned above?
1. When learning English words, practice them with the correct pronunciation. Most online dictionaries and Google Translate offer the sound version of a word. A more advanced step would be to memorise the phonetic symbols of English sounds.
2. Practise pure English long and short vowels.
3. Do articulation exercises every day for 2-5 minutes. It takes time and effort to build your speech organs muscles for English consonants.
We suggest that you practise English vowels and consonants with the apps Elocution Lessons and Get Rid of your Accent and the book Get Rid of your Accent Part One.
4. Learn and practise word endings with the app Fluent English Speech and the book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advance Level
To get the best results we recommend that you book a few elocution lessons