English as a Second Language
Useful Memory aids for the
spelling of some sounds in English which Spanish-speaking students often
find difficult or confusing even after several years of learning English.
.
b/v:
The
illustration for "bed" comes from Take Off with
Reading, but the illustration using a vase for "v" was not helpful
for Spanish-speaking students because they were likely to read "vase" starting
with a /b/ sound. I made up the following memory aids to help my high school
Spanish-speaking ESL students.
.
.
ch/sh:
(from Take Off with Reading)
Many Spanish-speaking students have difficulty pronouncing the /ch/
sound. It often sounds half way between /ch/ and /sh/. Practising
making it sound like a sneeze often helps. This memory aid obviously
only helps with the most common sound of "ch", not that in words that have
come from French such as chef, champagne or machine and words of Greek
origin such as Christ, Christmas and chlorine.
.
y/j:
(from Take Off with Reading)
These illustrations help alleviate the confusion between the pronunciation
of "y" and "j" particularly in words like "yet" and "jet".
.
Other sounds which may be
confusing:
Other memory aids from Take
Off with Reading could also be useful if students confuse other
sounds. The sound of other letter combinations that are likely to
cause a difficulty for Spanish-speaking students are aw, au, h, z, a, e,
u, er, ir, ur, oo, ow, ou and th. See Victory
Vowels and Ch and Friends in
The Giant Reading CDROMs.
.
Students from other language backgrounds may find different memory
aids from Take Off with Reading useful.
.
Gilead
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