Mark Hancock

Many of us who are in the business of teaching English suffer from a feeling of accent anxiety. We are embarrassed that our accent does not match the ideal ‘standard’ accent found in books and dictionaries, and we worry that our speech may not be a good pronunciation model for our students. But perhaps our worries are misguided.

What are the main pronunciation difficulties which Spanish learners have with English? In this practical session, I will suggest my top six, along with some fun ideas for dealing with them in class. Bearing in mind that the purpose of pronunciation teaching is to help learners become more intelligible, we also consider which features of Spanish-accented English are not problematic.

In this practical webinar, we look at some of the most important pronunciation issues for Spanish-speaking learners of English. A PDF of the slides can be downloaded below. The presentation contains example activities taken from the recently publishd PronPack 6: Pronunciation of English for Spanish Speakers.