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Common, Persistent Errors in English by Brazilian Portuguese Speakers
Betty Lanteigne, American University of Sharjah
Abstract
Introduction
My first time overseas I discovered firsthand the importance of pronunciation in
effective communication in a foreign country. I lived in the Palestinian city of Hebron,
where the language of communication was Arabic. In order to go from my home to the
university where I worked, I often took a shared taxi (a taxi that followed an established
route, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way). Since the shared taxis did not
have signs to indicate which route they followed, I had to ask the drivers if they were going
to my desired location, which was Haras. Since I knew the initial sound was a stronger “h”
than what I would normally say in English, I emphasized the “h” (/ħ/). But something was
not working right because three times the drivers stared at me and then drove away.
Because of observing such incidents (both as a language learner and a language
teacher), when asked to work with 11 Brazilian students learning English, I emphasized
pronunciation as an important aspect of communicative ability. These 11 Brazilian
Portuguese speakers had come to study English in an intensive English program (IEP)
designed specifically for them, utilizing inclass instruction and community involvement to
enable them to communicate in English. Their goal was to learn to use English both in the
USA and also in international settings, with primary emphasis on verbal communication.
Thus the program’s curriculum was centered around improving their functional oral
communication, including pronunciation.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 2
In this program, my role was that of program developer, curriculum designer, teacher
and researcher. In developing this IEP for these 11 students, prior to their arrival I researched
potential areas of difficulty in English for Brazilian Portuguese speakers in general. Since
these students were all from the same language background, I was able to focus on challenges
specific to Brazilian Portuguese speakers. Four English sounds in particular do not exist in
Portuguese (Dreasher & AndersonHsieh, 1990) and thus were likely to be problematic for
these students:
· /ð/ (“th” as in “that”),
· /θ/ (“th” as in “think”),
· /ŋ/ (“ng” as in “ring”), and
· /æ/ (“a” as in “cat”).
In the first week of contact with these students, I observed them speaking and noticed
that these four aspects of English pronunciation were indeed problematic for all of the
students at all levels. I also noticed some other errors common to all of the students:
· syllabic emphasis,
· the addition of extra syllables, and
· pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when not following /d/ or /t/
Syllabic emphasis was manifested in the students saying words like “ketchup” as “ketchUP”
(/kεtƒ‘Λp/) which sounded more like “catch up.” Extra syllables being added was most
noticeable in words like “speak” that the students pronounced as /ispiki/ or “eespeekee.”
Pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable resulted in words like “closed” being pronounced as
/klowzεd/ or “cloze ed.” In English the added suffix “ed” is pronounced as a separate
syllable in verbs ending in /d/ or /t/ (such as “sight” or “load”). This point of pronunciation
results in words like “sighted” and “loaded” being pronounced as "sightED" (/sajt‘εd/) and
“loaded” (/lowd‘εd/).
Problems in communication with these 11 students’ mispronunciation in these areas
ranged from irritation at someone’s name being mispronounced (due to syllabic emphasis
error), to misunderstandings when a word such as “think” was pronounced as “sing.” I
describe here the progress in the English pronunciation of these 11 Brazilian adults (native
Portuguese speakers), particularly focusing on /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, /æ/, syllabic emphasis, the addition
of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when not following /d/ or /t/.
The goal of language instruction is for students to improve in their proficiency in the
language that they are learning. In this particular setting, one goal of the program was for the
students to improve in their English pronunciation so that, ultimately, their functional
communication ability would be improved. In order to document their progress in
pronunciation, I focused on these aspects of English pronunciation that were likely to be
problematic for these native Brazilian Portuguese speakers because of differences between
their native language and English. Therefore, I sought to discover whether or not the students
improved in these points of pronunciation, observing them on two occasions a month apart. I
recorded and analyzed them reading a story, reading a list of words, and giving presentations.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 3
Literature Review
In the days when the Audiolingual Method of language instruction was used,
pronunciation was strongly emphasized through the use of drills and other forms of
pronunciation instruction, usually done in isolation. With the communicative approach to
language teaching, fluency was emphasized over accuracy, and pronunciation was viewed as
less important than getting language learners to talk. However, Brown (2005) says, "such
opinions have faded in recent years as we discovered that an overemphasis on fluency can
sometimes lead to the decline of accuracy in speech" (p. 144). The goal of language
instruction is to enable students to communicate in the target language, and being understood
is part of that communication, meaning that the students' speech must be capable of being
understood by listeners. Brown goes on to say, "so we have been paying more attention to
pronunciation . . . in an attempt to help learners be more comprehensible" (p. 144).
Knowing the importance of pronunciation in effective communication, I decided to
investigate what challenges Brazilian Portuguese speakers have with English pronunciation.
De Matos, Short, and Green (1976) mention that teachers whose L1 is Portuguese have
difficulty with intonation after vocatives and when beginning interrogative sentences. Major
(1987) points to challenges with English vowel phonemes for Portuguese speakers, and
Baptista (1989) focused on word stress. Salies (1998) observes that rhythm and stress are
problematic areas for Brazilian Portuguese speakers, and Sliveira (2002) addresses wordfinal
consonants.
Dreasher and AndersonHsieh (1990) found that /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ/ are English
sounds that do not exist in Brazilian Portuguese. Their observations indicated that because
these sounds do not exist in Portuguese, these English sounds are likely to be difficult for
Brazilian Portuguese speakers to learn, and in their experiment, errors with /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and
/æ/ persisted. On two occasions they observed pronunciation of /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ/ by
having Brazilian Portuguese speakers read a list of English words containing the indicated
sounds and also a reading passage using these sounds in context. Although they do not
discuss their participants’ exposure to English (i.e., formal and/or informal), Dreasher and
AndersonHsieh assumed that there was improvement in English over the intervening time
period.
Because I wanted to measure the students’ progress in aspects of English
pronunciation likely to be difficult for native Portuguese speakers, I decided to build upon the
study by Dreasher and AndersonHsieh (1990). I added observation of the students’
pronunciation while giving presentations to the class, a sample of prepared extemporaneous
speaking which was not included in Dreasher and AndersonHsieh’s study yet which reflects
a use of English more likely to occur in realworld communication than reading lists of words
in isolation.
Another aspect of this research that differed from Dreasher and AndersonHsieh’s
study was that this project took place in the context of an IEP involving language study,
interaction with people in the community, and the use of singing. Because stress and rhythm
are a major part of a language's character and a considerable part of singing involves rhythm,
I used singing songs as a means of improving the students' pronunciation. An interesting
observation is that singing was used for pronunciation practice with the Audiolingual
Method. (For example, see Mazzara, 1954; Stocker, 1923; Weymouth, 1938.) Barry and
Pellisier (1995) list the correction of pronunciation problems as one use of song lyrics, and
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 4
Graham (1978, 2006) has effectively used singing or chanting in language learning for
decades, both in terms of pronunciation and in building vocabulary.
Knowing the importance of pronunciation in practical functioning in a foreign
country, I observed these students' English pronunciation difficulties in the first week of
contact with them. Having researched English pronunciation challenges for Portuguese
speakers, it was my expectation that some common, persistent errors of these 11 Brazilian
Portuguesespeaking students would include (but not be limited to) /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ/.
Initial observations indicated that all of the students did have difficulty with the
pronunciation elements identified by Dreasher and AndersonHsieh. I also observed three
additional pronunciation problems common to all of the students: syllabic emphasis, the
addition of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when not following
/d/ or /t/. Therefore, my research questions focused on these seven pronunciation problems.
· Which of the seven identified English pronunciation errors continued to persist?
· (How) did the students progress in their pronunciation of the identified errors?
Since music was such an integral part of the students’ daily lives, I also included a research
question about the role of singing in improving their English pronunciation:
· Did singing songs appear to make a difference in their pronunciation?
Methodology
Students
There were eleven adults from Brazil participating in this program. Ten of the eleven
had completed high school, and some had attended college. One student had not completed
grammar school. Ranging from age 20 to 35, these Brazilian students were from different
regions in Brazil. Four had never studied English, while the others had studied English in
school for periods of time varying from four months to five years. As would be expected,
they also varied in personality and learning style. The one student who had not completed
high school was an excellent dancer (not an academic learner and clearly preferring physical
activity to books). Another student was a complete extrovert whose Englishspeaking ability
designated him as the prearrival spokesman. A third student was very quiet but methodical
and diligent. But all eleven students emphasized personal relationships and social interaction.
Two very pertinent characteristics of all of these students were that they sang and prayed
together and individually quite frequently, which gave them considerable practice in
pronunciation of /θ/ and /ŋ/ since they often said, "Thank You, Lord, for …. “
After a week of interaction, I placed them in beginning, middle and high level groups,
based on the ACTFL proficiency guidelines (1986). The beginning group consisted of five
women who ranged from low to highbeginning levels in speaking/listening. Their
reading/writing skills varied from highbeginning to lowintermediate. The one woman with
lowintermediate writing ability was put in the beginning group because her speaking ability
was very limited. The middle group included three women and one man. They had had
some English study, and were able to communicate on a minimally functional level with
reading/writing skills more advanced than speaking/listening. The remaining two men were
lowintermediate level in reading/writing/speaking/listening. They were given a more
flexible course of study as the group's designated communicators, involving more interaction
with native English speakers.
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The Setting
These students were enrolled in an intensive English program (IEP) in the USA, a
program created specifically for them focusing on both basic interpersonal communication
skills (Cummins, 19992003), both verbal and written. Classes were held Monday through
Friday, in morning and afternoon sessions.
In addition to the structured English classes, the students were involved in community
interaction. Brewster and Brewster (1986) describe a method of language learning which
they refer to as community language learning. In their particular form of community
language learning, they suggest a regular pattern of daily contact with native speakers,
developing relationships and learning language use in social context. These eleven Brazilian
students interacted with people in the community in many activities such as teaching a local
soccer team, spending weekends with American families, participating in church activities,
parties, and community events. Watching television and movies was also a part of their daily
lives.
In a reallife setting where the students interacted with many people in addition to
their English studies, it is difficult to point to any on element as the main reason for the
students’ progress in English pronunciation. They benefited from constant use of English in
many interactions in the local community with nativeEnglish speakers and the extensive use
of singing by the students, both singing in general and singing pronunciation songs (designed
to address particular pronunciation errors).
The Songs
I had thought that singing in English might prove helpful, and so I had them sing at
the beginning of each class with me. They also sang on their own, individually and as a
group. Sometimes when I observed all of the students having difficulty with particular
words, I created pronunciation songs, songs addressing specific pronunciation challenges.
One such song was "Today I Think," which gave practice in distinguishing /s/ and /θ/, and /ŋ/
and /ŋk/. (See Appendix A)
The Students' Error
The pronunciation errors that I observed during the first few days were /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/,
/æ/, syllabic emphasis, the addition of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate
syllable when not following /d/ or /t/ I heard these errors constantly from all of the students.
They had particular difficulty with /ð/, /θ/, and /ŋ/, and although I did not hear as many
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 6
problems with /æ/, I included /æ/ in my observations. In addition, these ESL learners
frequently added extra syllables, i.e., saying /ispiki/ instead of "speak." This error was
particularly noticeable in words beginning with "s" plus another consonant, such as "smooth."
The students would also pronounce "ed" as a separate syllable, like in saying /walkәd/, but
in English "ed" is pronounced as a separate syllable only when following /d/ or /t/. The final
error that I observed was misplaced syllabic emphasis. The students often emphasized the
last or nexttolast syllables, a pattern typical of Portuguese (Baptista, 1989; Salies, 1998).
For example, they would say “ketchUP” (/kεtƒ‘Λp/) and “mayonNAISE” (/mejow‘nejz/) or
“refrigerAtor” (/rifriʤɛ-‘rej-tɔr/), and “vindiCATed” (/vindi‘kejtɛd/). These errors
occurred in the speech of students at all levels many times a day, happening when students
were reading out loud, talking in class, or participating in casual conversation outside of
class.
Data Collection
The first pronunciation sampling recorded them reading a list of words selected from
vocabulary the students had encountered (orally and in writing) in their first four weeks of
being in America. I particularly selected words with /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ /, such as “think,”
“truth,” “thank,” “father,” “clothes,” “finger,” “pan,” and “hand.” I then listened for syllabic
emphasis in words such as “vindicated,” “microwave,” “bathroom,” and “hamburger.” I also
observed the addition of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when
not following /d/ or /t/ in words like “salt,” “stove,” “stopped,” “walked,” “wiped,” and
“changed.” These were all words that I observed were frequently used by them in daily
conversation. Next, the students read "The Beginning" (Henley, 1992), a narrative familiar to
the students. Also on that same day I recorded their oral presentations, five to ten minutes of
speeches written by the students and presented to the class (not read). These samplings gave
observations of speaking in context as well as reading words both in context and in isolation,
as done by Dreasher and AndersonHsieh (1990). (See Appendices B, The Beginning, and
Appendix C, The 100 Words.) The second pronunciation sampling was tape recorded one
month later, but this time the students gave their presentations with only me present. (It is
possible that the absence of their fellow students during their presentations made them either
more relaxed or more nervous, or it could have made no difference since by that time they
were comfortable in my presence.) They also read the same story and the same list of 100
words.
Results
Comparing the Initial and Final Observations
I knew from listening to the students that their English had improved, and comparison
of the observations of the pronunciation samples clearly showed their progress in
pronunciation. In analyzing the results of my observations, I counted all of the words
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containing the targeted points of pronunciation and the number of mispronunciations. Then I
listed words with errors in more than one of the points of pronunciation as the appropriate
number of occurrences of errors. Addition of extra syllables was expressed by the number of
extra syllables added, including multiple additional syllables per multisyllable word. Next, I
showed the number of mispronunciations in a ratio to the total number of occurrences, for the
initial and final evaluations.
Chart 1 (Initial and Final Ratios of Mispronunciations for All Students Compared to
Total Occurrences) shows the students' total errors in /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ/, syllabic emphasis,
addition of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when not following
/d/ or /t/. Assessing the initial presentations, story reading, and reading of the list of 100
words, confirmed that students at all levels had difficulty with all seven areas of
pronunciation.
Comparing the group's totals, it was immediately obvious that as a group the students
improved their pronunciation in almost all areas. There were only two instances (/θ/ and /æ/
in the presentations) where they increased in errors in the second sampling compared to the
first. In every other point of pronunciation, combining all tasks, the students clearly reduced
the number of mispronunciations. Particular improvement as a group was shown in /ŋ/ in
reading the story and /ð/ and /θ/ in reading the list of 100 words. In all areas of pronunciation
except /ŋ/ and addition of extra syllables, the students made more errors in reading the list of
words in isolation, a task with less contextual support than reading or speaking in context.
Graph 1 (Percentage of Improvement in Pronunciation for All Students from Initial to
Final Sampling) shows the changes between the two observations, expressed in percentages
of change in pronunciation errors. As shown in Chart 1, the greatest improvement was in
pronunciation of /ŋ/ in reading the story. Pronunciation of /θ/ and /æ/, when giving speeches,
actually showed decreases in accuracy of 1% and 2.3%, respectively.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 8
Graph 1
Percentage of Improvement in Pronunciation for All Students
From Initial to Final Sampling
40%
35% Speech
30% 100 Words
Story
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
5%
ð θ ŋ æ emphasis extra syl. "ed"
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 9
Chart 1
Initial and Final Ratios of Mispronunciations for All Students Compared to Total Occurrences
List of 100 Words
Initial Observation Final Observation
extra extra
δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl*** δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl***
Ratio 29/88 62/184* 26/106* 33/170* 150/219* 111/369 34/1084* 11/87* 27/187 18/110 21/176 141/220 81/374 20/1098*
Reading a Story
Initial Observation Final Observation
extra extra
δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl*** δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl***
Ratio 3/308 20/110 30/66 10/253 51/99 111/440 79/2156 0/308 0/110 4/66 10/253 47/99 69/440 41/2156
Presentations
Initial Observation Final Observation
extra extra
δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl*** δ θ ŋ æ "ed" emphasis** slbl***
Ratio 1/99 0/30 4/45 0/79 2/10 39/204 27/941 0/152 1/44 0/37 2/206 4/39 60/514 12/1932
* Only 84 words were recorded for 1 student in the initial observation and only 98 words for another student in the final observation.
** Number of mispronuncations compared to number of words of more than one syllable.
*** Number of extra syllables compared to total words.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 10
As is true of most teaching situations, this project occurred in a learning environment
with multiple sources of language input, in this case an intensive English program that used
singing and took place in a community setting. As such, it is not possible to establish
correlation or causation. Rather, I describe the progress in English pronunciation of these
eleven Brazilians, particularly looking at /ð/, /θ/, /ŋ/, and /æ/, syllabic emphasis, the addition
of extra syllables, and pronouncing "ed" as a separate syllable when not following /d/ or /t/.
Field Observations
The crucial test of pronunciation was whether or not these English learners could
successfully communicate in that language. I describe here some instances from field note
observations when I observed them using correct pronunciation of the points of pronunciation
that I was targeting.
· On one occasion they sang "Happy Birthday" to a friend, who said, "They sound like
a bunch of Americans singing!" Their singing demonstrated rhythm and stress typical
of English and correct pronunciation of /θ/.
· I also observed them praying in English each day, which gave them much practicing
in using θ/ and /ŋ/, since "Thank You, Lord" was used frequently.
· Another time I observed a student ask for directions to the bathroom, and evidently
she was understood when she asked, "Where is bathroom feminine?" because she did
get to the rest room. This question involved two multisyllable words and the sound
/θ/ appropriately pronounced.
I also noticed that all of the students improved pronunciation of specific words, in
direct response to learning songs.
· One song I created was designed to teach the students how to pronounce the name
of a friend, "Naomi." The students initially pronounced her name as NaoMI
(nejow‘mi/), emphasizing the last syllable. After I taught them the "Naomi
Song," they correctly pronounced her name, accenting the second syllable. Their
correct pronunciation was clearly demonstrated as they cheered for her at a track
meet.
· Another instance about using songs was when a student told me about a man who
was sick. She referred to a nonsense song that I had written and had taught to the
students ("Today I Think") to distinguish "sink" and "sick." She told me that it
was "that song" that helped her to know the correct pronunciation of "sick."
· One student commented, "I like learn songs because facilitates pronunciation."
That comment was impressive. First, it was a complete sentence consisting of
words correctly pronounced, spoken by a student who was one of the lowest in
Englishspeaking ability upon arrival in the USA. Secondly, this ESL learner both
observed and articulated that learning songs helped improve the pronunciation of
English words, an observation that confirmed from a student's perspective that
teaching songs would help students learn English rhythm, stress, and emphasis.
· The community aspect of this English learning experience motivated the students
to learn and improved their pronunciation. For example, within the first week of
their arrival in the USA, these students spent the weekend with an American
family with small children. They heard the sentence, "I'm going to tickle you"
frequently and promptly put it to use. The frequent use of "I'm going to tickle
you" gave the students much practice in pronunciation of /ŋ/. Many other
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 11
interactions with people in the community provided excellent opportunities for
authentic communication with native English speakers.
One topic of discussion with these Brazilian Portuguese speakers was causes of
adding syllables to English words, such as saying, /ispiki/ for "speak." I thought of two
possible reasons: hesitancy and difficulty with English consonant clusters, particularly in
words with a CCV structure. Schűtz (2005) commented that English has a greater occurrence
of consonants than does Portuguese, and Portuguese has more syllables per word and
different syllabic emphasis than English. Salies (1998) describes the greater number of
consonant clusters in English than in Portuguese as a reason for either inserting extra vowels
or deleting some of the consonants. Additional possibilities suggested by some of my
students were that the sound /k/ in Portuguese is written "qu" and is always followed by a
vowel, even in the middle of words; that Portuguese speakers expect most words to end in a
vowel; and that Portuguese words with an "s" plus another consonant in the first syllable
always begin with an "e."
Conclusions
Working with these Brazilian students, I identified common, persistent errors through
field note observations and initial reading and speaking samples. Comparing the initial and
final reading and speaking observations, I clearly saw progress in almost all areas of
pronunciation being targeted.
Undoubtedly, singing English songs had an effect on these students' English
pronunciation, as did community interactions. Of particular interest is that /θ/, /ŋ/, and
syllabic emphasis improved most for the group as a whole. Syllabic emphasis is definitely a
function of rhythm, a major part of singing, and /θ/ and /ŋ/ were targeted by "Today I Think,"
a song created specifically to address those pronunciation challenges. The students also had
extensive practice with /ŋ/ through the frequent use of “I’m going to tickle you,” which they
learned through interaction with a family from the community.
In summary, these Brazilian Portuguese students' communicative ability in English
was helped by the focus on aspects of English pronunciation particularly problematic for
native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, including the use of singing and community
interaction which were natural strengths of these students. In general, this study illustrates
the fact that it is useful for language teachers and instructional materials developers to be
aware of characteristic strengths of particular people groups and differences between their
first language and English when designing language curricula, and then draw on the students'
strengths to address areas of challenge in learning English.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 12
References
Baptista, B. O. (1989, Feb.). Strategies for the prediction of English word stress.
International Review of Applied Linguistics, 27 (1), 114.
Barry, S. & Pellisier, S. (1995). Popular music in a whole language approach to foreign
language teaching. Dimension '95: The future is now. Selected proceedings of the
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Carolina Foreign Language Teachers' Association. Charleston, SC: Southern
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Brown, H. D. (2005). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White
Plains, NY: Pearson.
Cummins, J. (19992003). BICS and CALP. Retrieved April 8, 2006 from
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Dreasher, L. M. & AndersonHsieh, J. (1990). Universals in interlanguage phonology: The
case of Brazilian ESL learners. Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics, 26.
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second language. NY: Oxford.
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Grant, L. (1993). Well said. Boston: Heinle.
Henley, K. (1992). The beginning. The beginner's Bible: Timeless children's stories.
Sisters, OR: Questar Publishers.
Major, R. C. (1987, Feb.). Phonological similarity, markedness, and rate of L2 acquisition.
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Mazzara, R. A. (1954, Nov.). Some auraloral devices in modern language teaching. The
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 13
Salies, T. G. (1998). Tracing possible roots of a Portuguese accent in English. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 423687).
Schűtz, R. (2005, Sept. 24). Acentuação tónica de palavras. Retrieved April 8, 2006, from
http://www.english.sk.com.br/skvoga.html
Sliveira, R. (2002). The influence of pronunciation instruction on the production of English
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 14
Appendix A
Today I Think
Today I think
That the sink
Will be thick
When I am sick.
And now I sing
That the thing
That makes me thin
Is not sin.
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 15
Appendix B
100 Words to Read
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TEFL Web Journal Vol 4 No 1 2006 16
Appendix C
“The Beginning” from The Beginner’s Bible (1992)
In the beginning, the earth was empty.
Darkness covered everything.
But God was there, and He had a plan.
“Let there be light,” He said.
And suddenly, golden light shone all around.
God called it “day.”
He called the darkness “night.”
With the light and the darkness,
the first day passed.
On the second day, God said,
“Let there be a great space.”
So the space was formed, deep and high.
God called the space “sky.”
God made rivers and seas on the third day.
He formed the mountains and deserts,
the islands and beaches.
He planted tall trees, swaying grasses,
and flowers of every color.
When the fourth day came,
God put lights in the sky:
the fiery sun for daytime,
the sparkling moon and dancing stars for night.
On the fifth day, God filled the water
with fishes of all shapes and sizes.
He made the birds to glide across the sky.
God made animals on the sixth day:
furry animals, scaly animals,
smooth, sleek animals.
And on that day, God made man.
When He was finished, God saw that
everything He had made was very good.
And on the seventh day He rested.
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