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Teaching Pronunciation
Teaching Pronunciation
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
I. INTRODUCTION
The importance of pronunciation
• Pronunciation is of paramount importance, since successful communication
cannot take place without correct pronunciation.
• Pronunciation is necessary for both comprehensible and effective speech and for
the learning of new forms in an L2.
The aspects
The concept of pronunciation includes:
1) sounds: In British English 44 phonemes are generally recognized (20 vowels and
24 consonants). According to these symbols, words can be transcribed.
2) stress
3) intonation
Good pronunciation = accurate reproduction of phonemes, correct stress and intonation.
Pronunciation problems will of course vary greatly from one country to another.
Common problems that are likely to occur:
- Difficulty in pronouncing sounds which do not exist in the Vietnamese language, e.g.
for many students, the consonants //, / and the vowel //;
- Confusion of similar sounds in L2, e.g. /i:/ and /i/, or /b/ and /p/;
- Confusion of similar sounds in L1 /t/;
- Use of simple vowels instead of diphthongs, e.g. /i:/ instead of //;
- Difficulty in pronouncing consonant clusters, e.g. /desks/, /fif/;
- Tendency to give all syllables equal stress, and a 'flat’ intonation.
students find difficult, or students may simply make mistakes in pronunciation without
being aware of it. In such cases, it is useful to focus on the sound or group of sounds
which is causing the difficulty.
c. Teaching a sound
1. Presenting: The basic steps:
- Say the sound clearly in isolation (so that students can focus on it).
- Say it in one or two words.
- Students repeat the sound, in chorus and individually.
- If students have difficulty in producing a particular sound (usually because it does
not exist in the native language), it is often very useful to describe how it is
pronounced, as long as this can be done in a way that students understand (using
simple English or their own language).
- If students confuse two similar sounds, it is obviously useful to contrast them so
that students can hear the difference clearly.
Writing words on the board is not necessary, and could confuse the students - the focus
should be on pronunciation, not on spelling.
2. Practising:
Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs are pairs of words which only differ in one feature, e.g. sing, song; park,
bark; loose, lose; ship, sheep. They can be used to focus on differences in vowel or
consonant sounds.
1) One/Two drill: Listen to the word, if you hear it has sound //, say one; if you
hear it has sound /i:/, say two.
Board: (1) (2)
2) Same/Different Drill: Listen to two words. Say same if they have the same sound; say
different if they have different sounds.
3) One/Two/Three Drill: Listen to three words. Say the numbers of two words that are
the same.
e.g.: T: bit – bit – beat Ss: one – two
bit – beat – bit Ss: one – three
4) Odd one out Drill: Which one is different from the other three? Say the number.
e.g.: T: bit – bit – bit – beat Ss: Number four
Sound in sentences:
She saw a big ship.
She’s washing the dishes.
2) Making sentences
Make three sentences. In each sentence, use one word from group 1and one word from
group 2:
Group 1 Group 2
last fast calm farm part rabbit
dark black glad party jam
marvelous bad car hat man
e.g. She drives a black car.
III. STRESS
Stress refers to the amount of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered.
Weak forms
Most words with two or more syllables have one stressed (or 'strong') syllable and two or
more unstressed (or 'weak') syllables.
Certain unstressed words change their pronunciation from the way they are said when
they are in isolation, and have a different phonetic form in the sentence or phrase. These
are prepositions, auxiliary and model verbs, pronouns, others – who, that (as a
relative pronoun), a, an, the, some, and, but, as, than, there, not, unless the word is being
specially stressed (e.g. 'John and Mary - both of them'). Reducing vowels in this way is a
feature of normal spoken English - it is not 'uneducated' or 'substandard' usage.
Most of these words, when they are not in a stressed position, which is always at the end
of a sentence and sometimes at the beginning, are said weakly and the vowel sound is
usually reduced to schwa //.
In connected speech (when we say sentences rather than single words), many more
vowels become reduced because complete words are unstressed. Look at these examples:
I ate bread and cheese. /a 'et 'bred n 'i:z/
Look at us. /'lk t 's/
Word stress
1. a syllable can carry primary stress, that is to say strong stress. The syllable is
longer, louder and said with more breath effort.
2. A syllable can be unstressed. In other words, it is said very quickly, lightly and
with very little breath effort.
3. A syllable can carry secondary stress. This syllable is said with more breath effort
than 2 but less than 1.
Sentence stress
In a normal English sentence certain words are stressed and certain words are unstressed.
Normally stressed are content words – the words that are essential for conveying a
message. These are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and demonstratives.
Normally unstressed are form words - the grammatical or structure words. These
words are not essential to the communication of a message.
E.g.: I ‘saw your ‘brother ‘yesterday.
Would you ‘like a ‘glass of ’beer?
Can I ’carry your ‘suitcase?
I must be ‘going.
My ‘wife’s ‘waiting for me at the ‘corner of the ‘street.
2. Using gestures:
- Thump the air when saying the stressed syllable.
- Punch the palm of his other hand.
- Clap your hands.
- Bang your hand against something.
3. Using blackboard:
- Using circles or squares: e.g.:
a kilo of sugar
IV. INTONATION
Functions of intonation
Basically, there are two functions of intonation:
1. It indicates grammatical meaning.
He lives in London. Do you come from London?
He lives in London? You come from London?
2. It indicates functions.
In some cases, both grammatical meaning and attitude are conveyed by the
intonation pattern alone.
Intonation patterns
For teaching oral English at a fairly low level, teachers need to be aware of two basic
intonation patterns:
- Rising tone: used in asking Yes/No questions, and to express surprise, disbelief, etc.
The voice rises sharply on the stressed syllable.
- Falling tone: used for normal statements, commands, and for WH-questions. The
voice rises slightly earlier in the sentence, and then falls on the key word being
stressed.
Open your book, please. How long have you been learning English?
Back-chaining technique
One way to help students use natural intonation is to practise saying the sentence in
sections, starting with the end of the sentence and gradually working backwards to the
beginning, e.g.: living here / been /living here / have you been /living here / How long
have you been living here? This technique is known as back-chaining.
T: Listen. How long have you been living here? How long have you been living
here? How long have you been living here?
ii) Students repeat, starting from the end.
T: Living here. Living here. Everybody.
Ss: Living here.
T: Been living here.
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?
iii) Groups of students repeat the whole sentence, then individual students.
T: (gesture to indicate a group)
G: How long have you been living here? (and so on)
quick succession, it is useful to remember that if you say something else between – a
simple comment will do, (I’ll say that again) – it is easier to produce an identical
repeat. The interpolated comment should be short enough to distract you, but not long
enough to distract the students.
3. Use choral pronunciation.
The technique of choral pronunciation is much under- used. Teachers feel they can
not do pronunciation with students who are not beginners, or that they can not use it
with particular classes because of the type of students involved. The technique is
useful with all students, at all levels, and save for classes containing only two or three
students, for all class sizes.
It is true that it is of particular use with larger classes, with younger students,
and with student at lower levels. This does not mean, however, that it should not be
used with other classes. It can also be a useful classroom technique even if its main
objective is not always only improved pronunciation.
Choral pronunciation serves to bring the class together and to re-focus
students’ attention on the teacher after some activity where their attention has been
elsewhere – perhaps private study of a text, or pair work. The manner in which the
choral pronunciation is done can ensure that the students’ attention is focused on the
teacher.
The technique is useful not only in bringing a class together, but in taking the
pressure off the individuals.
4 . Move around the room when doing choral pronunciation.
Advantages:
- possible to note which individual Ss are not speaking or need helps with a
particular problem.
- keeps the Ss’ concentration on the teacher.
- keeps everyone involved.
- helps to ensure that the individuals you ask after the choral repetition change
from one practice to another as you inevitably tend to ask Ss near you.
distinction clearly or to mimic accurately. This does not mean that they will not
reasonably successful in other areas of language learning. It is psychologically
important not to discourage those who find pronunciation difficult in the early stages
of learning. As different students progress at different rates, it is wise to accept
different degrees of variation from the ‘ideal’ target. It will help nobody if particular
students have their confidence undermined and are constantly being asked to repeat
because their pronunciation is less good than the rest of the class. A positive
atmosphere, an encouraging teacher, and time, will probably do more than over-
insistent teacher correction.
The implication is that Good is to be used differently to different students; and
differently at different stages of each student’s learning.
or by simple arrow drawings on the blackboard. The principle is clear from the two
different intonations of the single word ‘sorry’:
11. Refer to stress and intonation even when not specifically teaching it.
If students do not have reasonable control of pronunciation, stress and intonation, they
will be both difficult to listen to, and easily misunderstood. For this reason, it is
important that the teacher bears in mind that stress and intonation are important, even
if doing comprehension questions after a text or the example from a grammar
practice. If students deliver the answer to the questions in a dull, monotonous or
mechanical way, that is as much a ‘mistake’ as a pronunciation or grammatical error
and should come under consideration as one of the mistakes worth correcting. If
students are to use the spoken language effectively, stress and intonation need to be
given their real place in the teaching at all times.
The impression people form of each other is frequently more dependent on intonation
than grammar, and this should be a constant reminder of the important role it should
play in teaching.