4.2.

Pronunciation And Teaching

Techniques
Remember: Pronunciation refers to how a person articulates specific sounds. Let’s explore 5 critical
elements of pronunciation.

4.2.1. Pronunciation: Vowels, Consonants

And Syllables
When teaching pronunciation, you’ll want to have a good knowledge of vowel sounds. Vowels sounds are
made with the mouth open and the airway unobstructed (just recite a, e, i, o, u). With consonants, however, the
flow of air is briefly obstructed in some way (just recite b, f, v, for example).
In speech, the exact number of vowels depends on the regional accent, but there are more than 20 English
vowel sounds.
Diphthongs are an essential element of pronunciation. A diphthong is simply a vowel sound that is composed
of a sequence of two vowels. The vowel in the word so, for example, begins with the o sound of hot and then
glides into the u sound of put. Other diphthongs are the vowel sounds in high and late.
When teaching pronunciation, you’ll also need to know a bit about consonants. As mentioned above, a
consonant is a sound that is made by blocking the flow of air while speaking.
For example, the first sound in the word mark is made by closing the lips briefly, while the last sound is
produced by pressing the blade of the tongue up against the hard palate. There are 22 consonants in spoken
English.
Let’s consider some other critical features of speech which you need to know to help your learners’
pronunciation.

4.2.2. Pronunciation: Stress At Word And

Sentence Level
Word stress is where we say part of a word with greater energy, i.e., with more length, more depth, more
emphasis and sound on the vowel sound. Distinguish the stress in the vowel sounds in the stressed syllables
and the other syllables in the words pencil, photography, volunteer (stressed syllables are underlined).
Like English, many languages give especially strong stress to one syllable in a word. Other languages give
similar length to all the syllables.
Stress can also influence how we pronounce sentences and incomplete sentences.
We apply more or less stress to different parts of the sentence, i.e., slower and louder, or quicker and more
softly. This is called sentence stress.
Generally, one word in the sentence will have the main stress. This is the word which the speaker thinks is
most important for the meaning of the utterance.
Other words can have secondary stress. This is not as strong as main stress and falls on words which are not as
important to the meaning as the word with the main stress.
Other words in the sentence are unstressed.
For example, in this spoken sentence: She came home late last night, the word with the main stress is the
underlined one – late; the words with secondary stress would probably be came, home, last, night; and the
unstressed word is she.
But remember: It is possible to stress any word in a sentence if the speaker thinks it is important.
Whether you are focussing on word stress or sentence stress, provide the class with some guidance about the
position of the stress in one of two ways.
Either write the word/sentence on the board and show the stress by using a symbol or use a hand to make a
gesture (perhaps a chopping movement) to demonstrate where to place the stress when you say the word.
Here is how it could look if you were using a symbol on the board:

pencil

Word Stress And Sentence Stress Rules

We’re going to stick to the simple rules here as many rules are full of exceptions. For example, there are many
two-syllable words in English that are spelt the same but their meaning changes depending on the stress:

1. You will progress a lot with your English if you follow this rule.
You will make a lot of progress with your English if you follow this rule.
2. He rejected the plan.
This bowl was a reject, so I bought it at half price.
3. Everyone was present at the meeting.
I will present my ideas to the company tomorrow in a presentation.

Here are some fundamental word stress rules:

1. One word has only one primary stress. One word cannot have two primary stresses. If you hear two
stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. There can be a secondary stress in
some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main (primary) stress and is only used in
long words.
2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some fundamental sentence stress rules:

1. Content words are stressed. Content words carry meaning, e.g. main verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs
and negative auxiliaries (don’t, can’t, aren’t)
2. Structure words are unstressed. Structure words are used for correct grammar, e.g. pronouns,
prepositions, articles, conjunctions and auxiliary/helping verbs (e.g. do, be, can, have, must).
3. The time between stressed words is always the same.
There’s the odd exception to sentence stress rules, but far fewer than word stress exceptions. For
example, we have said that structure words are unstressed in a sentence. But look at the structure
word she below, which the speaker is stressing for emphasis while confirming information:
 Lisa didn’t do that, did she?
Yes, she did.

4.2.3 Pronunciation: Intonation

Intonation is another important part of pronunciation. It is the movement of the level of the voice, i.e., the tune
of a sentence or a group of words.
We use intonation to express emotions and attitudes and to emphasise or make less important particular things
we are saying.
We also use intonation to signal to others the function of what we are saying; that is, to show we are starting or
stopping speaking, or whether we are asking a question or making a statement.

Practice
To hear these intonation uses, try saying School’s just finished with these meanings:

 stating a fact
 with surprise
 with happiness
 as a question
 to emphasise just

You should hear the level of your voice rising and falling in different patterns.
Different intonation patterns can show many different meanings. However, there is no short and simple way of
describing how the patterns relate to meanings.
Intonation patterns can also be demonstrated with the use of arrows on the board or hand gestures to show the
‘musical’ pattern. Wherever possible, try to speak in a normal manner without a distorted intonation pattern as
this will provide the learners with a better model to follow.

4.2.4. Pronunciation: Rhythm

Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or beat. Look at this sentence:
Will you CLOSE the DOOR because he’s GONE to WORK?
In our sentence, the 4 key content words (close, door, gone, work) are stressed.
Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds music to the language. It is the rhythm
of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between
each stressed word is the same.
There is 1 syllable between CLOSE and DOOR and 3 syllables between DOOR and GONE. But the time
between CLOSE and DOOR and between DOOR and GONE is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the
stressed words.
To do this, we say the more slowly, and because he’s more quickly. We change the speed of the small
structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.
4.2.5 Pronunciation: Linking
Learners need to hear natural, fast, relaxed pronunciation as we speak it every day, not a carefully over-
articulated, overly-pronounced one-word-by-one-word phrasing of sentences. Speaking too slowly and too
emphatically is a common characteristic of the inexperienced teacher.
Speaking unnaturally can have a detrimental effect:

 Your learners will imitate your speaking style and speak unnaturally too.
 They will not recognise and understand rapid natural speech when they hear it.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t slow your speech down a bit to help your learners get some basic ideas, but it
does mean that you should speak naturally most of the time. It also means that you need to teach them what
natural speech sounds like.
There is some evidence that says that if learners don’t speak naturally, they won’t recognise normal speech
when they hear it.
Some examples:

 How much is it? sounds something like How muh chi zit?
 Don’t eat apples! sounds something like Don tea tapples!

If you habitually speak slowly and over-enunciate, your learners will listen for How much is it? and won’t
understand when they hear the normal speech sounds of How muh chi zit? You need to instruct your learners
in these differences, how to pronounce them and how to listen for them.
Where the end of one word connects to the beginning of the next word, this is called ‘linking’. Linking is a
naturally occurring phenomenon in the speech of every native speaker of English and is not the result of sloppy
or defective speech.
One major feature of linking occurs when a word ending in a consonant sound precedes a word beginning with
a vowel sound – as in don’t eat apples.
When the native-English speaker says this, the consonant sound at the end of don’t runs into the vowel sound
at the beginning of eats and the consonant sound at the end of eats runs into the vowel sound at the beginning
of apples. Thus, it sounds like don tea tapples.
Many learners of English tend to separate the words into distinct units and so their speech sounds ‘staccato’.
Other structural features cause this, e.g. linking between one word that ends in a vowel sound and the second
which begins with a vowel sound.
You should encourage your learners at least to attempt to approximate these linking features of English
because they are so commonly used in everyday speech. This, in turn, should raise their awareness of the
existence of these features and will make the task of listening easier.

4.2.6. Teaching Pronunciation

1. Key Points
The overall aim of teaching pronunciation is for the learner to develop spoken English so that:

 the learner is easy to understand when speaking English

 it allows a positive image of himself as a speaker of English

Here’s what you must do (and what you mustn’t do):

1. Ensure it is an integral part of communication

Learners will do well in the pronunciation of English if the pronunciation episode is not run in
isolation and instead becomes an integral part of communication in the class.
2. Do not aim for perfection
The goal of pronunciation in the CLT class is not the attainment of ‘perfect’ pronunciation. Who has
this, anyway, and who says it’s ‘perfect’? And how can it be proved? No, the more realistic goals for
you are that your learners:
 develop intelligibility (the degree to which the learner’s speech can be understood in different
language situations)
 increase communication ability
 develop increased self-confidence in speaking the language and listening and understanding
the language
3. Give lots of practice

Remember! The more practice given, the better the pronunciation will be.

2. The Phonemic Chart

All the activities listed above under Phonological and Phonemic awareness activities can be used to
enhance pronunciation, as can the Phonemic Chart.

The Phonemic Chart

This is an alternative method of approaching the teaching and learning of English pronunciation.
A phonemic chart provides a set of symbols, each one intended to represent an individual sound of the
language, irrespective of the way it appears in the standard written script.
There are a few different phonemic charts.
We highly recommend that you use this British Council phonemic chart. Go to:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart where you will see the symbols, can hear all the
sounds and can download it to your computer or iPad.
It may take several weeks for you to familiarise yourself with all the sounds. But it will be worth it.
In preparation for your TEFL career, you should start to familiarise yourself with the chart and the sounds.
Once you have had a first look at it, the following information will be useful.
The individual sounds of English are called phonemes, and the set of symbols representing the sounds is called
the phonemic alphabet.
Having received a basic knowledge and teaching in this system and by using a good quality EnglishEnglish
dictionary, most older learners should be able to discover the pronunciation of unknown words without your
help.
Many teachers are reluctant to introduce the phonemic chart to their learners for several reasons:

 They do not feel that the time spent learning the system is justified.
 They feel that learners already have an uphill task dealing with English spelling without asking them
to learn another alphabet.
 They feel unsure about the system.

But:

 Learning the phonemic alphabet is not as challenging as it first appears, and it can be made
considerably easier by introducing it piece by piece to the class as part of your daily lesson plan.
 With a little application, you often discover that the system becomes second nature.

Note:
Other languages have their own unique phonemic systems. When learning English, it is common for the
phonemic system of their first language to influence the production of sounds in English.
Please remember that in an English-speaking country, dialectal differences should be considered when using
phonemic charts.
Note there is not always a correspondence between the number of letters and the number of sounds.
Also, note that most English dictionaries show where the stress of a word is by using the mark ‘.
Give it a go!

3. Moving Pronunciation From The Brain To The

Mouth
An excellent technique for teaching pronunciation well and faster is to enable learners to move pronunciation
from their brains to their mouth.
Some teachers who see pronunciation only as a cognitive activity will take longer to achieve their
pronunciation goals, and it will be less engaging and practical for their learners.
The solution is to make it both a cognitive and physical activity.
Make it a wholly physical activity by getting your learners to focus on the muscles that produce sound, rhythm
and articulation.
You need to get them to sense physically what their muscles are doing so that they become aware of the
interaction between muscle movement, sound production and aural perception.
This will enable them to:

 Adapt their pronunciation, e.g. adapt/change the way they say a sound or stress a syllable
 See the muscle movement and adapt/change it if necessary
 Increase their awareness of the internal sensation/ movement from the muscle movement

Thus, you are encouraging them to:

 Listen to the sound they are emitting, e.g. from a recording

  ‘See’ the sound, e.g. in a mirror
 Feel the sound, e.g. by placing their fingers on their lips, tongue and jaw.

This is a much more practical and successful method for teaching pronunciation.
Before doing this, it would be wise to explore a modern pronunciation text with lots of illustrations of lip,
tongue and jaw movements when pronouncing. You could copy these and distribute them to your learners.
Using illustrations, demonstrations, mirrors and muscle movements will make your pronunciation sessions
much more engaging, practical and fun.