TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

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Handout 1
1. Work with a partner. Read the statements and then write beside each one whether
you AGREE (A), or DISAGREE (DA) with the statements. Think of the reason for
your opinion. If you are not sure whether you agree or disagree, write NOT SURE
(NS) and give the reason why you are not sure.

Statements A DA NS
1. The best model of teaching pronunciation is RP (Received
Pronunciation, i.e. the regionally neutral, prestige accent of Britain).
2. Mispronunciation of individual sounds is less important than
errors at the level of stress, intonation and rhythm.
3. It is hard to correct incorrect habits in pronunciation; therefore it
is important to get pronunciation right as soon as possible.
4. Intelligibility (i.e. being understood) is more important than
sounding like a native speaker.
5. One of the best ways of teaching pronunciation is always to
speak naturally to the learners.

2. Study these learner errors. Identify the area of pronunciation that each of them
relates to. Why do Vietnamese learners of English make these mistakes?

Learner pronunciation Correct version

a Our president is very IMportant.
b It is bad to heat children.
c It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
d Who are your waiting FOR?
e How many beeble live here?
f IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN!
g What’s this? It’s a bookshel.
Our president is very imPORtant.
It is bad to hit children.
It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
Who are your WAITING for?
How many people live here?
If only I’d KNOWN!
What’s this? It’s a BOOKSHELF.

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Handout 2
Focusing a difficult sound
Imagine that you want to focus on a sound which students find difficult. Which of these
steps are the most important? Which are not necessary?

Say the sound alone

“th” /θ/ - “th”/θ/

Say the sound in a word

“think” - ‘thank you”

Contrast it with other

Listen: “t” - “th”
sounds
Write the words on the
board
Explain how to make the Look - tongue between your
sound. teeth. let the air go through:
“th” /θ/

Get students to repeat the

sound in chorus Everyone - “th” /θ /

Get individual students to Mai - Can you say it?

repeat the sound

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Handout 3

Teaching Stress and Intonation

1. Underline the stressed syllable and circle the reduced vowels in the following words
photograph photographer record Asia
apart table comfortable Monday

2. Look at the following words and phrases. Work in pairs and discuss how you could
show the stressed syllable of a word and the stress pattern of a phrase in class.
attractive Give me an orange
trousers I’d like some coffee
perfect He was late again

3. Work in groups. Practise saying this conversation and then show the intonation of it to
other students in your groups.
Waiter: Would you like something to eat?
Customer: Yes, please. Some coffee, some bread, and some cheese.
Waiter: You’re French, aren’t you?
Customer: No, I’m not. And I’m not American, or English, or Russian.
Waiter: So where are you from then?
Customer: Just bring me my food!

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English Language Teaching Methodology 2
 TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
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Handout 4
Study the pronunciation activities below and answer the questions
1. What aspect of pronunciation is each activity targeting? Is it targeting at individual
sounds or sentence stress and intonation?
2. Is the objective of the activity reception or production? (or both)?
3. Is the feature used in context or is it decontextualized?

a. The teacher demonstrates the difference in the pronunciation of the –ed ending on
worked, lived and started. She then asks students to make three columns in their books,
headed by /t/, /d/ and /id/ respectively. She reads out a list of past tense words, e.g.
opened, walked, moved, lifted, missed, waited, etc; the students write each one in the
appropriate column.

b. The teacher prepares cards of rhyming words, e.g steak, make; do, true, etc. In groups,
students take turns to table the cards; if a card rhymes with the preceding card, the player
keeps the pair. The winner is the player with the most pairs.

c.The teacher tells a story that the students know, making deliberate mistakes, which the
class have to correct. For example:
T: Little Red Riding Hood lived in a cottage in the middle of a desert.
L: No, she lived in the middle of a wood.
T: Oh, yes, she lived near a wood.
L: No, in a wood…

d. The teacher prepares cards on which are written different quantities of money, e.g. 5
cents; 50 cents, 5 dollars; 50 dollars; 500 dollars, etc. She hands individual students the
cards, saying “Here’s a present for you”. The students should respond by saying “Thank
you” I a way that is proportionate to the amount of the gift.

e. The teacher sets up a speaking exercise, e.g dialogue, role play, chat, etc. When
students make a mistake in their pronunciation, the teacher acts “dumb”, e.g. she says, or
indicates, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand”. The student tries to correct him/herself.

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Handout 5

Pro - nun -ci -a - tion Activities for ESL Learners

A. Practising sounds
1. Minimal Pairs
Minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ in only one phoneme or sound
E.g. pin and bin let and net sink and think
Activity 1: Pronunciation Sentences
• A chart is created using minimal pairs along the top and the sides. The rest of the
chart is filled in with commonly used words.
• Students make up a sentence using the words from the minimal pairs
E.g. Phong like flowers but he doesn’t like the police
Phong /f/ Penny /p/
phones pencils
friends pen
four/forty people
father picture
family parks
factory police station
floors planes
flowers paper

Activity 2: Minimal Pairs Telephone Numbers

• Make a list of ten words in two groups of five
• On the board - two line of numbers., 0-4 on the left, 5-9 on the right. Beside 0-4
write one list of words, beside 5-9 the other.
/i/ /i:/
0 fit 5 feet
1 ship 6 sheep
2 lip 7.leap
3 rip 8 reap
4 tick 9 teak
• Read someone’s phone number in the code. Give students time to translate
the sounds into numbers. Then ask two or three students to give the versions of
their phone numbers. E.g . reap ship reap tick lip ship = 818421.
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Activity 3: Minimal Pairs Run and Circle

• On the board write some examples of minimal pairs, but make sure they are
scattered about.
• Divide the students into 2 or 3 groups that compete to be the first to circle the
correct word in order to receive a point for the group.

2. Tongue Twisters
Tongue twister is a sequence of words, often alliterative, difficult to articulate quickly.
Procedure
• Write some English tongue twisters on the board or on pieces of paper to distribute
to students. Ask them to read the tongue twisters aloud. Then faster. Then three
times in a row. Here are some examples:
o She sells sea shells on the sea shore
o A proper copper coffee pot
o Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran
o Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry
o A big black bug bit a big black bear
o Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of
pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
• Now ask the students to have a go at creating their own tongue twisters. This
activity is a variation of the famous 'Consequences' game. Write the following
questions on the board:
1. Write your first name
2. What did she/he do?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why? Because…
• Now give students the following instructions:
o Get into teams of about 5 people
o On a piece of blank paper write your answer to question 1.
o Pass the paper to the person on your right. Write an answer to question 2 on
the paper you have just received. Your answer must begin with the first
sound in the person's name (e.g. Bob - bought a bike)

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o Pass the paper on again and write an answer to question 3 again using the

sound at the beginning of the name.

o Continue until all the questions have been answered.
o Pass the paper back to the person who started with it. Read all of the tongue
twisters aloud.
• It might help if you give the students some examples before they begin the
exercise:
o Bob bought a bike in Bali on his birthday because he was bored
o Susan sang a song at the seaside on the 6th of September because she
saw some sunshine
o Laura laughed in the laundrette at lunchtime because she lost her
laundry .

3. Dictation lists
• Draw two columns on the board with the headings: first syllable stress and second
or third syllable stress
• Read the words in a list and students have to put the word they hear into the
appropriate column. Give the first one as an example to the class.
• To check the answers, get students to read the words back from each list.

student, engineer, fifty, window, ruler, pencil, classroom, eraser,

fifteen, thirty, eleven, basket

1st syllable 2nd or 3rd syllable

ruler, student, window, basket, pencil, eraser, fifteen, engineer, thirty, eleven
classroom, fifty

4. Backchaining technique
Break the sentence from the back (not the front) to maintain proper sentence stress. Break
words in half for linking consonant endings to words with a vowel. On your lesson plan,
mark with slashes (/) where you will break the sentence.
Back chaining can be done with single words too. Break the word up into syllables.
Backchaining a sentence Backchaining a word
On the lesson plan: On the lesson plan:
Would you/li / ke a/ cu/ p of/ tea? Vege/ ta/ ble
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English Language Teaching Methodology 2
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tea? / /
p of tea? ble
cup of tea? ta ble
ke a cup of tea?
like a cup of tea? vege/ ta ble
Would you like a cup of tea?

6. Finger correction
Use your fingers to show contractions. Elicit the contraction from the students.
S1: I going to visit Hanoi.
T: No. [shows little finger to represent “I”] What’s this word?
S1: I
T: Good. What’s next? [shows next finger]
S1: am
T: Good [squeezes little finger and next finger together to show I’m] “I am going” or
“I’m going”
S1: I’m going.
T: Good. Now say the whole sentence.
S1: I’m going to visit Hanoi.

B. Practising stress and intonation

1. Backchaining technique
Backchaining is a technique used for practising intonation. The teacher says the sentence
in sections starting with the end of the sentence and gradually working backward to the
beginning. The reason for starting at the end rather than the beginning is that the last
stresed syllable that determines the intonation pattern of the whole sentence. So by
repeating the end of the sentence, the correct intonation is preserved.
e.g. How LONG/ have you /been /LIving here?
a. T says the whole sentence and show the stress and intonation. Students listen.
T: Listen: How long have you been living here? How long have you been living
here? de - DA - de- de - de - DA - de -de. How long have you been living here?
b. Students repeat, starting from the end.
T: Living here. Living here. Everyboday.
Ss: Living here.
T: Been living here.
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Ss: Been living here.
T: Have you been living here.
Ss: Have you been living here.
T: How long have you been living here?
Ss: How long have you been living here?
c. Groups of students repeat the whole sentence, then individual students.

2. Rhythm and Stress Practise

English is a stressed-timed language. Stressed syllables occur at regular intervals.
Therefore, the amount of time it takes to say a sentence in English depends on the
number of syllables that receive stress, not on the numbers of syllables. If there are
several unstressed syllables they must be said more quickly.
E.g. Kids like jazz Men need work
The kids like jazz. Some men need work.
The kids like the jazz Some men will need work.
The kids’ll like the jazz Some men’ll need the work.
The kids’ll all like the jazz Some men’ll have needed the work.

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Handout 6
Microteaching 1
1. Study the activities for practising sounds in your textbook.
2. a. Work in groups. Below is the material for teaching pronunciation extracted
from Tieng Anh 10 (p.164).

Listen and repeat

think thin they then

thought something those another
mouth birthday clothes brother

b. Design an activity for practising the pair of sounds and try it out with other
students in your class.

Microteaching 2
Work in groups of six. Imagine that you want your class to repeat the sentences below.
a. Have you ever been to London?
b. She’s wearing a green dress.
c. What are you doing?
d. I haven’t seen her for years.
e. Do you mind if I open the window?
• Practise saying the sentences
• Mark the stresses syllables.
• Mark the places where you could divide the sentences for “backchaining”. Mark the
intonation
• Practise teaching the sentences with your friends.

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English Language Teaching Methodology 2