Pronunciation

Tuesday, September 30th

 In this class we will look at:
• What do we mean by good pronunciation?
• Different pronunciations in English
• Problems that L2 learners might
experience
• Some good ways to teach pronunciation to
groups of large students/a list of activities
you could use for your students.
What is pronunciation/good
pronunciation ?
Pronunciation refers to:
• The act or manner of pronouncing words;
utterance of speech.
• A way of speaking a word, especially a
way that is accepted or generally
understood.
• A graphic representation of the way a
word is spoken, using phonetic symbols.
Question: can you paraphrase all
So … what makes good
pronunciation?
There are three levels of English pronunciation:
• Level 1: People often don't understand what you want
to say. You use the wrong sounds in English words. (
example)
• Level 2: People understand what you want to say, but
it is unpleasant to listen to you. (example)
• Level 3: People understand you, and your English is
pleasant to listen to. (example one, example two)

Question: which level are you?

© Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com

Different pronunciations in
English
Good pronunciation is not "perfect American or British
accent". You don't have to sound like the Queen of
England or the President of the United States of
America.

As Chan Wook and Anne showed us a few weeks ago,

there are many regional kinds of English. In England,
people from Newcastle speak English differently from
people in London. In America, people from New York
City, California, and Texas each have their own
pronunciation, as you will learn in Austin. ^^ So it is
no problem if you have your own accent. English is
 … but there are standards!
Turn on your TV and watch channels like CNN
International, NBC or BBC. You will hear many different people
(news anchors, reporters, etc.) from Germany, France, and
other non-English-speaking countries. They all have good
accents — not too fast, easy to understand and they
consistently use similar forms for:
1) Z (not J or Ch)
2) CH/GE/X (not the extra “ 으” and " 이 " we sometimes
hear on “fax” and “orangey”)
3) L and R (not mixed or confused)
4) Th (voiced) and not S or Z (birthday not birssady)
5) Clear vowels . Long "O" vs Short O“, short "I" vs Long
“E” and short "A" vs short "E“ are clearly spoken.
 Some activities
• 1. Shadow reading …
Students try to speak at exactly the same speed and
rhythm as the CD, then try one more time with the
sound turned down in the middle of the recording to
see if they are still in time when the sound is turned
back up.
• 2. Syllables snap
Students take turns turning over cards with words
written on them from their packs. If the two words
have the same number of syllables, the first person to
say “Snap” and/ or slap their hands down on the
cards wins all the cards that have been turned over so
far. The person with most cards at the end of the
game is the winner. This also works with vowel
sounds in one syllable words and word stress.
• 3. The yes?! game
Students try to give as many different feelings and
meanings to one word or sentence as they can by
varying the stress and intonation. The other students
guess what feeling they were trying to convey.
• 4. Yes. Yes! YES!
Similar to The Yes?! Game, students compete to say a
word or sentence in the most extreme way they can, e.g.
they take turns being as angry as possible and the
angriest person wins.
• 5. Sounds brainstorming board race
Teams of students try to write as many words with
the sound they have been given on the board as
quickly as possible. Each team member can only
write one word before they pass the pen onto
someone else, but they can prompt each other. This
also works for number of syllables and word stress.
• 6. Silently mouthing
Students try to identify the word or sentence that the
teacher or a student is mouthing silently. This is good
for awareness of mouth position for English sounds.