Hi everyone,
I have two Vietnamese students in my class who badly need to improve their pronunciation. The students are19 and 22 and have quite a good grasp of grammar, but their speech is very…very unclear. They have serious difficulties producing consonants like x, sh, th. They say it is very difficult for them to pronounce ch and dj, etc.
I would like to help them and volunteer some time, probably up to 4 hours. As there is a lot to teach and practice in both cases, I was wondering if you have any suggestions. What should I focus on during my limited time and what should I leave for their homework?
Thank you very much

Pronunciation is hard for adults. It's not that you can't do it. The problem is said to be that you are so good at forming the sounds for your mother language that it's hard to break away from those mouth positions to form new sounds.

I usually spend a lot of time on the specific shapes of the mouth required to correctly pronounce each of the sounds you are working on. You mouth and its parts make up a musical instrument of sorts. All of the pieces need to be in the right position to make the correct sounds. The placement of your tongue, the shape of the oral cavity, the position of your lips and then the vibration or lack there of with the vocal cords.

Making the proper sounds requires practice forming these 'shapes'. For proper use in speaking it requires muscle memory and you can only get that via practice, practice, practice.

It certainly won't be quick but I think showing them and practicing the proper shape and attributes needed to make the sounds will help. Even just being conscious of them can make a difference over time.

I agree that the pronunciation is hard for adults, but on other hand I believe with the strong self-will everyone can do everything.

They can start to listen some English music (pop, rock...) or to watch English movies. They can definitely catch some phrases and try to learn how to pronounce the correctly.

You can work on the mouth positions for the sound you want to work on. Then you can reinforce them with words and then tongue twisters. Pick a couple and work on fixing those. It would be very frustrating to both yourself and your students to try to fix them all at once. Pick the most used ones that cause the most confusion in understanding first.