TEACHING

PRONUNCIATION
 TEACHING
PRONUNCIATION
1. What role does pronunciation play in language
learning?
2. What is the goal of teaching pronunciation?
3. What aspects of pronunciation do we need to
teach?
4. How can teachers help the students to practice
pronunciation?
 THE ROLE OF PRONUNCIATION

Two points of views on teaching pronunciation:

• Students do not need to learn pronunciation, because pronunciation will
take care of itself as the students develop overall language ability.
• Failure in pronunciation is a great hindrance in language learning.
Therefore the teacher should spend some time in teaching pronunciation.
 WHETHER PRONUNCIATION
NEEDS SPECIAL ATTENTION OR
FOCUS DEPENDS ON MANY
FACTORS, ESPECIALLY LEARNER
FACTORS.
e.g.
• Learners whose native language has similar
sounds to English vs. those whose native
language has very different sounds from
English;
• Learners who have more exposure to English
vs. those who only learn English in the class;
• Adult learners vs. young ones.
• We should pay attention to the distinction between pronunciation
and phonetics.
• The teaching of pronunciation should focus on the students’ ability to
identify and produce English sounds themselves.
• Introduction to phonetic rules should be avoided at the beginning
stage.
• Stress and intonation should be taught from the very beginning.
e.g.
A: Would you please turn down the radio a little bit?
B: Sorry.↘ (with a sharp falling: No, I don’t want to.)
Or:
B: Sorry.↗(with a rising: What did you say?)
 THE GOAL OF TEACHING
PRONUNCIATION
• Should we require the students to acquire
native-like pronunciation? Or rather:
• Can the students achieve that goal?
To answer the second question, we must
take into consideration three things:
*learner age, *amount of exposure,
and *differences of individual ability.
 1. LEARNER AGE

The Critical Period Hypothesis: The

hypothesis claims that if humans do not learn
a foreign language before a certain age
(perhaps around puberty), then it becomes
impossible to learn the foreign language like a
native speaker because of changes such as
maturation of the brain.
 2. AMOUNT OF
EXPOSURE
• At the present time, most Chinese
learners of English do not have enough
exposure to English to acquire native-
like pronunciation.
 3. DIFFERENCES IN INDIVIDUAL
ABILITY

• Students have different phonetic abilities due to biological and

physiological differences. Some are more sensitive to sounds and
are better at imitating sounds than others.
 THE REALISTIC GOALS

• Consistency: Be smooth and natural.

• Intelligibility: Be understandable.
• Communicative efficiency: Convey the
meaning that is intended.
 THE REALISTIC GOALS
leave live

I live in this place.

I leave in this place.

 ASPECTS OF
PRONUNCIATION
• Pronunciation covers more than just phonetic symbols and rules.
It also includes stress, intonation, and rhythm, and all these are
not isolated from each other.
• Stress and intonation are often neglected by many learners.
• Sometimes stress and intonation matter more than the individual
sounds do.
 PRACTISING SOUNDS

• Pronunciation is difficult to teach without drills on sounds.

However, drilling an individual sound for more than a few
minutes a time may be boring and demotivating.
• It is important to combine drilling pronunciation exercise with
more meaningful exercises.
 PRACTISING SOUNDS

Can you imagine an imaginary

menagerie manager imagining
managing an imaginary
menagerie?
• Sometimes we need to focus on some
individual sounds,
e.g th [W] in theme, th [T] in them
 WAYS OF PRODUCTION
PRACTICE

• Listen and repeat.

• Fill in the blanks.
• Make up sentences.
• Use meaningful context.
• Use pictures.
• Use tongue twisters.
 A TONGUE TWISTER

A big black bug bit the back of a big black bear.

The big black bear bit the back of a big black pig.

When the big black bug bit the back of the big black bear,

The big black pig bit back the big black bear.
 PRACTISING STRESS AND
INTONATION
Practising stress:
• Use gestures. (by clapping hands or using arm movements.)
• Use the voice. (by raising the voice)
• Use the blackboard. (by underlining or colouring)
Practising intonation :
• Use hand or arm movement.
• Use arrows (↘ for falling, ↗for rising)
• Draw lines under/above the words:

Did you get some | tic|kets for the |con|cert

↗?
 SUMMARY: SOME ESSENTIALS
OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

• Create a pleasant, relaxed, and dynamic classroom.

• Use gestures.
• Build-up Students’ confidence.
• Bring variety to the classroom,
• Use demo rather than explanation.
• Use visual aids.
THANK YOU!