USNR, I have never heard of “flat” vowels; what are they? Also, <i>th</i> and <i>sh</i> are not diphthongs; in fact, they are not vowels at all. This might explain why students would have a hard time understanding or reproducing sounds.

Marty - yes, it must be her! She will think it quite funny when I tell her I was talking about her on a forum and someone recognized her. We live in a very small world.

Please do tell her and have her email me if she still has my address! This is so very bizarre. The world is tiny.

My 25 year old grandson is teaching &quot;Academic Writing&quot; at a major university in China (S.I.A.S..see links). He is a graduate of University of Oregon, was doing substitute teaching and free lance writing for magazines and newspapers in Ventura, Ca...but this opportunity came up and he's loving it. Can still do his writing from China.
12,000 students all of whom must take ESL and Academic Writing whic is part of the ESL program. They have 90 English speaking teachers this year, most of whom are teahing ESL and ESL-allied programs.Not necessary to know any Chinese, although he's taking classes for that, too. We plan to visit in the spring, having been to China in '84..the changes are geometric!
Stu


www.en.sias.edu.cn

Yes, a dipthong is a vowel + glide, such as [aw]. An example would be the word &quot;dog&quot; as pronounced in a place like Alabama {da-og}. Another example would be &quot;bile,&quot; which most people pronounce with two vowel sounds {bi-ul}.

I call vowels flat when they sound like this: a as in apple; e as in egg; i as in it; o as in object. There are numerous other variations. Each of the vowels has several different sounds, some of which are very difficult for ESL students. Call them what you will, diphthong or not, there are some sounds which give ESL students fits: examples are sh, ch, th, and wh. I speak about this problem from experience.

I'm originally from Ohio and we have a flat &quot;a&quot;--or at least I do--and it didn't stop me from getting a job teaching English in Thailand (but maybe they were desperate then?). My ex was from Long Island, and that accent didn't stop him from getting a job teaching English either.