American English pronunciation errors made by speakers native to China

Common
American English
Pronunciation Errors

Vowel Errors

China

Pronunciation will be improved dramatically by correcting 3 or 4 critical Vowel errors.

Problem:

Vowel length too short

i.e.

"man” sounds like “men"

i.e.

“ran” sounds like “run”

i.e.

“fool” sounds like “full”

i.e.

"cap” sounds like “cup”

i.e.

“cat" sounds like “cart”

i.e.

“seat" sounds like “sit”

Solution:
AAP Vowel Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Tongue Position
- Lip Position
- Jaw Position
- Tongue Tension
- Vowel Length
- Compound Vowels

Targeted Exercises

- Vowel Reductions
- Vowel Sounds
- Vowel Pairs
- Vowel Length Drills

Consonant Errors

China

Pronunciation will also be improved by correcting a few critical Consonant errors.

Problem:

Sounds that are confused:

"b" and "p"

i.e.

"bad" sounds like "pad"

"v" and " f "

i.e.

"van" sounds like "fan"

"v" and "w"

i.e.

"vet" sounds like "wet"

"d" and " t "

i.e.

"made" sounds like "mate"

" l "and "r"

i.e.

"light" sounds like "right"

" l " may sound like "oh" at the end of words

i.e.

"pail" may sound like "pay-oh"

i.e.

"ball" may sound like "bah-oh"

"n" may sound like " l " at the beginning and middle of words

i.e.

"no" may sound like "low"

Solution:
AAP Consonant Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Placement
- Airflow
- Voicing

Targeted Exercises

- Consonant Sounds

24 different sounds

- L Drills

Blends
Sound combinations

- R Drills

Beginning
Middle
Ending

Intonation Errors

China

Using the correct stress and rhythm will immediately improve your ability to be understood.

Problem:

Pitch - Tends to be flat - pitch needs to go up and down to create the correct "melody" of American English.

Stress - Often incorrect syllable and word stress.

Intonation - Words are separated too much, creating "choppy" speech - Words need to be linked to create smoother speech.

Solution:
AAP Intonation Tutorial

Techniques Taught :

- Stress
- Pitch
- Steps and Glides
- Duration

Targeted Exercises

- Intonation Patterns
- Compound Nouns
- Heteronyms
- Word Reductions
- Sentence Level Intonation
- Contrastive Intonation
- Response Drills
- Tag Questions