* Rhythm is a problem for Chinese speakers of English. Chinese is a syllable stressed language, while English stresses the important words and runs the rest together to make them fit! (How's that for amateurish English?!) I'm always emphasizing to students the importance of stressing the key words, although I don't require them to run the others together quite as obviously as native speakers do.
* Syllable stress within words is a bit tricky but not too hard - once they've remembered it for each particular word, they're fine (e.g. photograph, photographer, photographic).
* /th/ as in 'three' is a problem. Books here often teach people that they needn't put their tongue out between their teeth. However, I tell students that if they do, then they certainly won't mess up this sound. I ask them to hold their finger against their lips and see if they can get their finger damp from their tongue (but it's kind of dirty - carry wet wipes when you do this lesson!) when they say this sound.
* /au/ as in 'how now brown cow'. Chinese has a similar sound but the mouth is less wide. I ask my students to smile broadly as they say this sound! There is a delightful dialogue about a mouse in the house in Ann Baker's 'Ship or Sheep' that I often use.
* /eu/ as in 'phone', 'cone' etc. This seems to be a particular problem when followed by a consonant. One of my female students insisted for the longest time that her English name was 'John' ... it turned out, of course, to be 'Joan'. Again, Ann Baker's 'Ship or Sheep' is most helpful here with a lovely dialogue.
* The sound in 'usual' (can't do phonemics on the boards, I guess) is something they've learnt but quickly forget when speaking.
* Finishing words with a consonant is a problem - they often want to add a final vowel sound. E.g. 'sunny' and 'sun', 'Jonah' and 'Joan'.
* We Aussies like to have a well rounded /ei/ eg pain, main, brain. Chinese speakers of English don't round it anything near like we do, but then, neither do speakers of English in some other English speaking countries.
To help with some of these problems, I like to use jazz chants (great for the rhythm) as well as songs, I play Bingo occassionally using minimal pairs for problem sounds, I use dialogues and tongue twisters etc. I'll often choose one problem sound and do a ten minute section at the beginning of the lesson and then hound the poor students any time they don't pronounce that particular problem sound correctly for the rest of the week.
