In one of my Adult ESL classes, I encountered the common issue of pronunciation in regards to:
Wish
Witch
Which
If you are familiar with ESL, it helps to use, for example in my case, Spanish to help the students understand the context of the words they are learning. When my students asked about these three words, I helped them with the English pronunciation and created sentences. As they continued to look puzzled, I took that as my cue to execute my second language (or what I have of it).
Wish is similar to "deseo" in Spanish, which can also indicate a desire for. Witch is "bruja." Which can be "que" or "cual." Cual is more personal. These details are all important to know as you will see.
As I began the illustration, for some rebellious reason, quite serendipidously, believe me, I decided to say the words from bottom to top:
"Cual bruja deseo" (which witch do you desire or what witch do you desire) to which my student replied, "Con escoba o sin escoba" (with or without a broom)?
We had quite a laugh. I hope you will, too!
