absolutely! The number one example I think of was when my granddaughter, was still calling me “maemah” when she was seven, not because she couldn’t say “ Grandma,” but because she had memorized that I was her “maemah.”🤣

Yesss I have this conversation with parents. Sometimes it just takes time and for the kid to become more self conscious before it’ll change lol. And some kids reach that level at different ages

Sure! It’s all part of learning the sound system and being self-aware.

I frequently talk to parents about whether a kid wants to do something vs can they do something. Not every sound error constitutes a disorder or a need for therapy.

Lol 😂😂

Have you tried asking him to record himself repeating some phrases/chunks/sentences with these sounds that are giving him trouble? You could provide him with a recording of yourself or someone else and ask him to try his best to repeat what he hears and then listen to himself speaking. Another strategy could be using lots of music/musical activities, getting him to sing along, and highlighting similar sounds in words with different spellings (such as how the combination “on” can stand for several different sounds etc). The musical approach might help you get a better sense of whether he might require help from an audiologist or if it’s more of a fossilized issue.

I have a native English speaking student who does the same thing. It might be a speech disorder?

You could try asking him some of his favourite English speaking celebrities/footballers/YouTubers and get him to try to copy the way they speak. Maybe also try to get him to copy parts of songs, sometimes a rhythm can help.

Perhaps you need to work on tongue placement. Check out Rachel's English on YouTube. She has a lot of useful videos and diagrams for common mispronounced sounds. You may also look into speech therapy videos as well. They have useful tricks for eliciting specific sounds.

Not a speech therapist or anything, but a couple suggestions from my own teaching and language learning.

Can he hear the distinction between what you’re saying and what he’s saying or do they sound the same to him? If he can’t hear the difference, it may be more related to hearing, distinguishing tones, auditory processing, etc.

If he can hear the distinction but just not make the sound, can you coach him through changing the sound?

(I recall learning to pronounce pão correctly—I couldn’t initially hear the distinction between the way I was saying it and the way I should be saying it. I was told to try and say it with my nose instead of my mouth, and that got me to the more correct nasal-ish pronunciation. Once I could make both sounds, “ao” vs “ão,” I could then distinguish the difference when others said it.)

Sit with the learner facing the instructor. The instructor says the word and the student repeats the word. Importantly, they aren’t focusing on trying to pronounce the word correctly, they are focusing on making their face make the exact same shapes as their instructor’s face made. (A small hand mirror can be a useful tool, or selfie mode on a phone cam.)

Sometimes trying to achieve the shape instead of the sound forces the learner to move their face around in ways that may facilitate correct pronunciation.

If it’s a small handful of common words, like “on,” can you break it apart and repeat it to death? If he can make the appropriate “on” sound as a part of another word, English or Portuguese, have him repeat that word a number of times, like 10, then try to just say “on,” correctly, by itself. As he gains fluency, cut down on the repetitions until he’s down to alternating words with correct pronunciation. Then, see if he can get “on” and just repeat it correctly like 10-20 times without the pronunciation slipping. For mastery, spend a minute 3-4 times a day just repeating the target word, correctly pronounced. (Alone in the car and in the shower are two great places to practice this without feeling goofy.) If he’s sort of cemented these mispronunciations, just a lot of correct repetitions may retrain his mind and mouth.

After a lifetime of hating rote memorization, I’ve really come around on memorization and drills. If one can force things to the point of automaticity, that frees up the thinking to deal with everything else. Is it tedious? Sort of. Is it a simple process anyone can perform? Absolutely. I’m big on really short practice sessions at least 3 times a day, preferably as much as they can stand.

Write out the words the students struggle with. For example, if a student can't pronounce "entrepreneurship" I break it down like so: awn-tre-pre-neur-ship

It doesn't have to be perfect, they just need to see it like that

In addition to other insightful comments, tell them what should be happening inside their mouth/throat. Where is the tongue? What shape are the lips? Are the teeth shut or can air pass through? Etc

I love doing tongue twisters. I would start easy and then work my way up to harder sounds like "th." Read the sentences first really slowly then allow them to attempt them. I then ask them how fast they can go. Afterwards, I send them those pronunciation videos on YouTube of the words they struggled with the most.

I use tongue twisters and then specific songs (I made a playlist). Clients won't typically learn much new vocabulary from singing/lyrics, but they do learn pronunciation, rhythm, clarity, and stressed syllables. Those of my clients who sing regularly have better pronunciation and intonation. Poetry is also useful. They read, record, and send the recordings to me between classes.

Phonics, an ancient idea of learning to speak clearly and sounding out words before the dark ages of 'sight words'

really stop and think about HOW you make that sound, then explain it. For example the "r" and 'g' sound comes from the solar plexus, but the related sound in Japanese is in the mouth. so it always sounds strange to native speakers.

"L" is made with the tongue flat on the teeth, but in japanese they dont have that phonic, so you get that flied lice kind of sound. Because who ever taught them english didnt know or didnt know how to teach the proper phonic.

hi there! i just sent you a dm (:

Could it be simply lack of practice? Many kids make it to primary school knowing way too little. Is he able to pronounce it accurately when corrected by someone?

If he is, then it does seem like it's more a practice issue vs physical issue with his tongue or ears.

If he can't correct himself, then it could be a cognitive problem or hearing problem?

Not much info to go with here so I am just guessing. Are you his school teacher? Because the school might have SEN officers to help with this, and can do referral if needed.

Sorry, not specific to Japanese ESL learners, but I cannot emphasize the importance of the International Phonetic Alphabet enough. If you are a teacher, it's very very helpful to understand the anatomy of the sounds, how our tongues touch different parts of our mouth to make things. For example, I helped a 5 year old who had only been learning English for a few months say "name" instead of "lame" (Mandarin L1) by emphasizing "dame dame name."

To help with this, I recommend the Cambridge Dictionary or Wiktionary to get IPA for words. It's so helpful to see /ˈdɛt.ɚ/ and realize you're saying a pretty simple pronunciation instead of "debtor" and thinking it's 6 phonemes.

Two I like: Backchaining long words: eg 'psychology' Drill gy - logy - chology - psychology So you start with just the last syllable and add on syllables.

Minimal pairs: prepare two lists of words, one containing the target sound, one containing a similar, easier sound. Then just drill the hell out of them. If you have a WhatsApp group, record yourself reading them and post it together with the list so they can practise at home. Eg: target sound 'r' contrasted with 'l' Merry holly Reef leaf Brother blazer

English 'th' has two sounds, /θ/ (as in thistle) and /ð/ (as in this). I'll begin with /θ/, or voiceless 'th'. I will be giving the standard pronunciation, not dialectal variants.

Voiceless 'th' is a fricative that sounds very similar to 'f'. The 'th' in three should be just as smooth, light, and continuous as the f in free. The only difference is that whereas 'f' is made between the lower lip and upper teeth, 'th' is made with the tongue against the upper teeth.

One thing I think often makes this tricky in other languages is that, in many other languages, ordinary 't' is also made with the tongue against the upper teeth; that, then, would make 't' and 'th' very similar-sounding, the only difference being that one is a stop (or plosive), the other a fricative (a continuous sound). But in English ordinary 't' is not made with the tongue against the upper teeth, but with the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the hard ridge between the teeth and the hard palate. So if you are keeping your 't' distinct in its place of articulation from 'th', I think that might help in making the 'th' sound.

As for voiced 'th' /ð/, it is pronounced exactly the same except voiced. If /θ/ corresponds to 'f', then /ð/ corresponds to 'v'.

Supraregional Irish English speaker here:

The 'th' is the easy one, the 't' is the one people get stuck on (depending on their previous languages)

Just a mild correction. Not all non-native English speakers have a problem with these sounds. They do exist in other languages.

tip of the tongue in between the teeth. TH's are fricatives so practice making the sound continuous instead of just doing it instantly one time. voiced TH in the middle of words (mother, whether) are easier to produce than at the beginning or end. do drills on TH vs T/D (then - den, thin, tin, father - fodder).

I've heard mirroring is best for improving pronunciation over shadowing. Not sure how true it is, though, but might be worth a try?

For me, it's listening a lot first, using online resources that explain the exact positions in the mouth for each sound, and then shadowing native speakers. Use Audacity to record and try to match the sound graph of the source.

How do you mirror/shadow ASIAN languages‽‽ specially tonal ones!

Learning IPA

Yeah I'd definitely recommend doing what you are doing. Also make sure you understand the sounds of the language fairly well, so you don't start to apply the sounds of your native language to your target language

Find a native speaker (can be in person or online) and copy what they say and do.