Pronunciation for Cantonese Speakers of English
This is really only for Cantonese speakers living in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Students very frequently say 'How to spell?' rather than 'How d'you spell it?'
A simple solution is to draw a pig's head/pig in the top corner of the board before each lesson- because pig in Cantonese sounds like the /dz u:/ in DUty free. When a student first makes the mistake point to the pig and ask for the name in Casntonese - then drill 'How /dz u:/ spell it? = How d'you spell it?
After you've intro'd the pig once - you simply need to point to it any time someone makes the mistake, and students will self-correct each other.
Hope this helps with an easily corrected, yet very common mistake.
Dominique Adams
British Council
Hong KOng
Dom_adams@hotmail.com
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