Happy Summer people. I’m procrastinating massively despite a massive marking pile and a dissertation to finish. This was something that came up as a bit of Focus on Form (reactive, explicit language work).
In Japanese /æ/ and /ʌ/ are basically allophonic. They are the same sound to my learners. They hear no difference. I’m too far from the original mistake through overused /æ/ but I had problems getting my students to see the difference between the two phonemes. Having the luxury of a phone, a computer and a projector…
/ʌ/
/æ/
A gormless face is optional. This could also work for /ɪ/ and /iː/, and /ʊ/ and /uː/.
Anyway, just an idea.
Using Photos of Yourself to Teach Vowel Quality
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That pair of sounds is a massive problem for Slavic speakers, and frustrating for me at times as it means none of them can pronounce my name properly! I find it useful to get them to:
– put their index finger on their nose
– put their thumb on their chin
– move between the sounds
That way they can feel that /æ/ is slightly wider than /ʌ/. If their fingers aren’t moving, then they’re not differentiating between the sounds enough.
Hope that helps and good luck with the dissertation!
Sandy
That’s such a brilliant tip. Cheers Sandy! Thanks for the luck for the dissertation. I need as much as I can get!