UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE HONDURAS

Facultad de Humanidades y Artes

Carrera de Lenguas Extranjeras

CONTRASTIVE GRAMMAR CLASS

Name of the Assignment:

Creating an Exercise to Teach Phonetics and Phonology 

Presented by:

 Delmis Dilenia Rueda Lezama 20161032889

 Eder Isacc Ponce Pacheco 20181032147
 Keren Raquel Cabrera Pineda 20191000138
 Vera Lucia Paz Urbizo 20191000409
(No Trabajo)
 Alexandra Josefa Sánchez Pineda 20191005613

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022

 INDEX

Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p.3

The English pronunciation of the sounds /s/, /z/ and /iz/ ------------------------------- p.4

1. Exercise #1 -----------------------------------------------------------------
p.4,6

2. Exercise #2 -----------------------------------------------------------------
p.6,8
V and B with the same pronunciation ----------------------------------------------------- p.8

1. Exercise #1 ---------------------------------------------------------------
p.9,10

2. Exercise #2 --------------------------------------------------------------- p.11

Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ p.12
Bibliography ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- p.13

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 Introduction

When you want to learn another language, you have to take into account different
aspects: be focused on what you want to achieve, work hard, show and have interest in the
language you are learning. Learning, understanding, and speaking a second language increases a
student’s prospects, as gaining knowledge of a second language brings many benefits at a
personal and professional level.

However, one of the biggest challenges you face when learning a new language is the
correct way you have to pronounce the words. In our case, English is not a phonetic language,
since we can have a spelling with different sounds, depending on the word in which this spelling
is written and usually presents the greatest difficulty of pronunciation of many words.

That is why it is very important to have good pronunciation management and thus be
able to convey a coherent idea. To do this, we will present a series of pronunciation problems
that students of a new foreign language usually have when speaking. We will also provide some
exercises that serve for better pronunciation management.

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 The English pronunciation of the sounds / s /, / z / and / iz /.

Learning a new language can be difficult as some sounds have similar sounds like Z, S
and iz, but it is important to know that there are some differences. To have a good
pronunciation, the student must seek or use some method to improve the pronunciation of the
language, especially for foreign language students. Spanish-speaking students are the ones who
generally do not know how to differentiate the sounds z, s, iz since they are very similar and this
is one of the reasons why it is complicated when learning English but this is not a problem that
does not have solution since in English there are rules to pronounce these words first the sound
of the S is deaf and the sound of the z is voiced another thing that is very important when
learning a new language and what will allow us to have a good communication and with a
correct pronunciation are the rules first, use the /s/ for words that end in a deaf consonant like
stop, laugh, sport, bath and like. Secondly, when we need to pronounce the sound /z/ it is for
words that end in a voiced consonant such as dogs, words, loves, dreams, sings, fans and feels
and for words that end in a vowel, for example, trees and fingers of the feet. And lastly, the rule
to have a better pronunciation with /iz/ is for is ending like buses, box changes, watches, finals
and prizes.

Exercise 1: Discover the Vibration of Sounds.

Objective: The main objective is for Spanish speaking students to improve their pronunciation
in their second language. This exercise will allow them to recognize the sounds / s /, / z / e / iz /
by vibration. In this way it will be easier for students to better understand when they hear words
containing these sounds. To learn, practice and at the same time be able to differentiate these
sounds read the following instructions.

Instructions:
A. Look carefully at the table where the rules to follow for the pronunciation of the / s /, / z / e /
iz / sounds are explained in detail.
B. Next, look at the words in the bee and snake box, place them correctly in the graphics
provided below.
C. In order to fill in the graphs correctly you must identify with which words you feel vibration,
it is recommended that you put your hand on your neck and feel the vibration of each sound.
D. You must pronounce each word out loud to identify to which column its correct sound

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belongs.
E. As you can see, there are three graphs with the sounds / s /, / z / and / iz / put the words in the
appropriate chart.

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6
Exercise 2: The Game of Loetria

Objectives: With this interactive game, students are expected to have fun and improve their
pronunciation each time, specifically to get them to identify which words contain these sounds.
If you want to win you must follow the instructions correctly.

Instructions:
A. Make a card of 3 horizontal and 3 vertical squares, placing words containing the sounds /
s /, /z / and / iz /. In addition, make 3 cards containing the letters / s /, / z / and / iz /.
B. Then the teacher will choose 2 students, to play lottery, they should be ready, when the
teacher picks up the letter containing any of these letters / s /, / z / / and / iz /.
C. The students should place a plastic plug in the words they think contain the above sounds.
D. The student who has managed to place the plugs in a box, either vertically, horizontally or
diagonally, will shout lottery, and inside this box must be a word with each sound, that is, a
word with /s/, a word with /z/, and a word with /iz/. (You can see in the card below)
E. Then, the student should show the card to the teacher, so that he/she can see that everything
is correct.
F. Finally, the winner must repeat the words aloud with his/her classmates.

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 V and B with the same pronunciation

As you know the English language tends to be difficult for each of the students in the
different linguistic backgrounds, but it is a bit more complicated for Spanish speakers since
there is a lack of equivalences in the sound systems, for this reason we will analyze this problem
with sounds individually, which come to damage negatively the clarity of Spanish speakers in
English, starting with consonants. On this occasion we will focus on the difficulty of
pronunciation of the letter’s "B" and "V", which for a while represented two different sounds in
the Spanish alphabet, but today it is pronounced with the same phoneme. Having as a
consequence for the Spanish speakers to produce the sound as it is done in Spanish /B/ for the
two letters, but it is not a problem that has no solution, because the consonant V occurs when
we place our upper teeth with the lower lip, in consonant B the sound occurs when we close our
lips.

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 Exercise 1: Tongue Twisters With the Letter V and b
Objective: This activity has as its main objective that native Spanish speakers of the Spanish
language and study English as a second language achieve a correct pronunciation of the
consonants V and B in English, will also serve to identify and differentiate these sounds when
listening to a native speaker of English. It is important that you pay attention to the following
instructions.
Instructions:
1. The student should read and practice tongue twisters slowly and carefully.
2. Then you will have to take the challenge to do it with a little speed.
3. When the student feels more confident, he will read more quickly and without mistake.
4. Finally, you will have to take on a bigger challenge when you pronounce both consonants in
the same tongue twister.

n bit a
r b iti n g bitter
A bitte ng bitte
rn .
e r b iti
bett ern
e tt e r b iting bitt
b rn
And the er biting bitte
b itt
bit the
back. to
b itin g bittern
bitter
Said the biting bittern
er
the bett
ittern
b itt e r biting b
“I’m a
ack”.
bitten b Betty Botter bought some butter. But,
she said, the butter’s bitter.

If I put it in my batter. It will make my

batter bitter.

But a bit of better butter. That would

make my batter better.

So, she bought a bit of butter. Better

than her bitter butter.

And she put it in her batter. And the

batter was not bitter.

So it was better Betty Botter Bought a

bit of better butter.
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Exercise 2: The Clever Parrot.

1. Some minimal pairs will be written on a blackboard to practice pronunciation. One of the
options will be to listen to the students and determine the sounds individually in minimal pairs.

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2. Ask the students to show them a word on the blackboard and they will have to pronounce it.
They should only repeat it after you, only if they are sure that the pronunciation is correct. If
you think you are pronouncing it incorrectly, giving an example as a /b/ when it should be a /v/,
you should remain silent and then repeat and reinforce the correct pronunciation of the words
you already gave on the board.

Conclusion

Communication is of vital importance since all human beings feel the need to do it in
our daily lives, which must be clear so that the receiver can receive the message well and not
capture it in another way, perhaps the one that is not wanted. It should be noted that there are
more than 44 sounds in English and the pronunciation can vary either by the region in which
people live, an important point is that as future teachers, we must apply or take into account
different techniques for students in a way that it becomes easier to understand or apply when
learning a language and, in this way, obtain all the skills to master when communicating, either
by transmitting or receiving a message. Finally, it is also important that as teachers we must
obtain a good pronunciation to serve as a model for our students for
this it is important to have phonetic and phonological knowledge of
both English and Spanish in this way, making comparisons between the two, as students in this
assignment we have understood the importance of handling or knowing the rules of English
correctly and practicing day by day to perfect our pronunciation either using different methods
or learning techniques.

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 Bibliography

 B. (2016, 29 junio). Sounds of the Plural S in English. Learn ESL.

https://www.learnesl.net/sounds-of-the-plural-s-in-english/

 Fisher, D. C. (2021, 16 septiembre). How to Say the Letter S (for People Who

Have Lisps). wikiHow. https://www.wikihow.com/Say-the-Letter-S-(for-People-

Who-Have-Lisps)

 M. (2021b, noviembre 20). 45 fun B tongue twisters. ESL Vault.

https://eslvault.com/b-tongue-twisters/

 Cabal, C. (2021, 6 abril). 7 Activities and Ideas to Practise B and V sounds.

Blog de Cristina. https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=14530

 English sounds [w] and [v] in tongue twisters. (2019, 30 agosto). YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oIXwYKwcfA

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 B and V Pronunciation Practice with a Tongue Twister! (2020, 22 octubre). Happy

English - Free English Lessons. https://www.myhappyenglish.com/free-english-

lesson/2017/05/13/b-and-v-pronunciation-practice-with-a-tongue-twister/

 Best Tongue Twisters for Android - APK Download. (s. f.). APKPure.com.

https://apkpure.com/es/best-tongue-twisters/com.best.tounge.twister.informati

ve.app

 Cabal, C. (2021, 6 April). 7 Activities and Ideas to Practise B and V sounds.

Blog de Cristina. https://www.cristinacabal.com/?p=14530

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