What are common pronunciation challenges for Russian learners

Common pronunciation challenges for Russian learners often stem from differences between Russian and the target language phonetic systems, interference from native language sounds, and difficulty with specific sounds and prosody. Key issues include:

• Difficulty with English vowel sounds that do not exist in Russian, especially distinctions between short and long vowels and diphthongs.
• Problems with English consonants absent or differently pronounced in Russian, such as the English “th” sounds (/θ/ and /ð/), which may be substituted by /s/, /z/, /t/, or /d/.
• Challenges with English stress patterns and intonation, as Russian has a different stress system and prosodic features.
• Influence of Russian phonological features like palatalization and vowel reduction, which may affect the clarity of English pronunciation.
• Difficulties with English consonant clusters that are less common or non-existent in Russian.
• General interference of Russian phonetics and intonation habits leading to an accent and mispronunciations.

These challenges require focused phonetic instruction, practice with native sound models, use of phonetic symbols, and activities targeting prosody and individual sounds for effective improvement. ^{1, 2}

References

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• Common Pronunciation Errors among Vietnamese Learners of English from Phonological Perspectives

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