German EFL learner homophones

[mothwing]

One of the learners in my tutoring centre has the most interesting pronunciation. She was reading a text the other day and it took a while for me to figure out what she was talking about.





Oh. And "sought", forgot about that one. I think she was talking about a sword, about which she had thoughts. But I can't be certain.

Comments

[lordhellebore]

Gah! Okay, if teachers teach that kind of thing...is there hope? ;)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yep. Took her aside today and asked her to,

1.) Imagine she was someone who lisps,
2.) read a passage while imitating someone who lisps,
3.) told her that the "th" is the "lisping sound",
4.) asked her to read the passage again with "s" re-inserted,
5.) Profit. Beautiful "th"es and a student with a lightbulb moment, for no one had explained that lisping thing before. (.... I don't even.)

[lordhellebore]

Yay, sounds good :D

for no one had explained that lisping thing before.

That is insane. I'm not even a teacher, but my first words to someone explaining the "th" would be something along the lines of "imagine someone who's lisping".

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. o.O

Though, interestingly enough, while she got right the TH sounds in the text she was reading, she still didn't pronounce them when speaking. Babysteps... And I need a diplomatic way to do repeat that thing with her teacher. Er.