Doris:
> Wow!! Caio, I was dealing with this very contrast yesterday with my Korean > ladies. Heidi (yes, that's her name!) <
Yeah, that's a typical Korean name. What's her last name? da Silva? hehe
>was pronouncing "he" and "his" with > essentially the same vowel. When I watched her mouth as she was saying > "his," her lips were so obviously tensed beyond what they should be, so in > addtion to demonstrating the contrast, I told her to relax more for "his." > This struck her funny.<
I think the problem is that she probably doesn't HEAR the difference, so she's much likely to keep on pronouncing the same way and not transfer that to other words.
I was wondering about that some time ago and I think there may be some good 'biofeedback' devices to practice that: softwares like ProVoice, which type in the text as you dictate it. But as I was told they're pre-adjusted to the speaker's voice and idiosyncratic way to pronounce phonemes in a previous programming session, when it's instaled, maybe those that were created especially for deaf-born people to practice speech are a better choice. And they may help singers practicing other languages, too.
> > My contrast / minimal pair pronunciation book (which lists every language one > for which each contrast is an issue) is upstairs right now. When I've the > time, I'll check these contrasts:
Can you send me the title later?
> > Don't you think we need a listserv for singers who are also E.S.L. > teachers??!!
Hehe... And for students too! Haven't you ever corrected the stress of a word and the student, instead of changing the pitch, yelled that syllable?! hehe
bye,
Caio Rossi Sao Paulo, Brazil
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