Pronunciation: To teach or not to teach

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This session will not only give you the answers to why, what and how to teach, regarding pronunciation;

but also provide you with some tips, meaningful activities and

exercises to foster the learning and teaching of English pronunciation.

TODAY’S AIM

Interview your peers: Think about your previous English learning experience :

What percentage of your lesson time was devoted to pronunciation?

How would you rate the quality of your teachers’ pronunciation of English (good, fair, poor)?

Which techniques for teaching pronunciation did your teachers use?

What type of feedback did you receive regarding your pronunciation?

What else contributed to your English pronunciation learning? (at and outside school)?

Look at the cartoon and discuss why English is considered to be a Lingua Franca

So, Why teaching pronunciation ?

English is the major lingua franca globally.

More and more people need to use English for social, educational,

and professional reasons in all kinds of contexts, locally and

internationally. It is essential that people who use

English to communicate have a high level of intelligibility. (Celce-

Murcia et al, 1996)

What to teach:

Sounds

• vowels• Consonants• diphthongs

Stress and intonation

• words• sentences

Rhythm and linking

• speech• sentences

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When to teach?

When students…1. confuse or distort specific sounds

that may interfere with comprehension

2. Use pronunciations that are stigmatized. E.g. tree for three

3. Distort the pronunciation of words by stressing the wrong syllable

4. Use inappropriate intonation

Younger children who are learning English seldom need a great deal of help with pronunciation.

Learners older than 12 are more likely to have trouble with specific words, sounds, intonation patterns… require focused instruction.

Facts concerning pronunciation. Do you agree, Why? Why not?

Pronunciation difficulties

Interference from the first language:

The sounds of the first language are imprinted very early in the child’s development; however,

most children are born with the vocal equipment to produce the sounds of any

language.

Some pronunciation problems in English:

• Vowel combination sounds

• Homographs (read and read)• Homophones (red and read)

• Specific consonant sounds: /th/ /sh/• Word/sentence stress

How to teach pronunciation

INTUITIVE-IMITATIVE: pronunciation is acquired as a result of exposure and interaction in an environment where the target language is spoken.

ANALYTIC-LINGUISTIC : pronunciation is learned through instruction in order to raise awareness

Correct input

Meaningful pronunciation activities

1. LISTENING DISCRIMINATION: listening for pronunciation, listening for meaning

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Activity # 1: Listen to the words and draw the corresponding pictures and compare.

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3 4

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ACTIVITY

#2

Listen to the sentences and circle the correct sentence that follows the dialogue:

a) How many sheep do you have?b) Do you own a ship?

a) Yes,she can’t sit next to youb) No, go ahead this seat is free

a) Really? Do you know how to knit?b) My clothes are so neat

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2. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS: phonemic charts, minimal pairs, transcriptions

Basic Principle: Understanding of sounds precedes understanding of the written word.

Word Phonetic representation

Bird A.E \ˈbərd\

Beard A.E \ˈbird\

Beer A.E \ˈbir\

Bear A.E \ˈber\

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Phonemic chart

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Phonemic chart

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1-Ship 4- 1-Sheep 4-

2-Sit 5- 2-Seat 5-

3-Knit 6- 3-Neat 6-

1- 1-

2- 2-

3- 3-

1- 1-

2- 2-

3- 3-

diphthongs

Vowel sounds

1-Ship 4- 1-Sheep 4-

2-Sit 5- 2-Seat 5-

3-Knit 6- 3-Neat 6-

1- cat 1- cut

2-lack 2-luck

3-drank 3-drunk

1-day 1-die

2-pain 2-pine

3-raise 3-rise

diphthongs

Vowel sounds

MINIMAL

PAIRS

ACTIVITY#3

Consonants sounds

1- thigh 1-tie

2- theam 2-team

3- thread 3-tread

4-thorn 4-torn

1-lace 1-laze

2-ice 2-eyes

3-place 3-plays

4-bus 4- buzz

Consonants sounds

1-juice 1-use

2-jet 2-yet

3-jot 3-yatch

3. CONTROLLED PRACTICE: drills, repetition, shadow reading, reading aloud, role plays.

Intonation: Noun or Verb 

ACTIVITY#4

Knowing when and where to stress the words you use is very important for understanding, and is part of a good accent. A clear example is that of the different stress in nouns and verbs. 

to in’sult, an ‘insult

to ob’ject, an ‘object

to per’mit, a ‘permit

to pre’sent, a ‘present

to pro’duce, a ‘produce

to pro’ject, a ‘project

to pro’test, a ‘protest

To re’search, a ‘research

The stress is represented by anAphostrophe right

before the stressed syllable

1-You need to insert a paragraph here on this newspaper insert. 2- Can you object to this object? 3- I’d like to present you with this present. 4- The manufacturer couldn't recall if there'd been a recall. 5-The religious convert wanted to convert the world. 6-The political rebels wanted to rebel against the world. 7- Grandma wanted to record a new record for his latest artist. 8- If you perfect your intonation, your accent will be perfect. 9-Due to the drought, the fields didn't produce much produce this year. 10- Unfortunately, City Hall wouldn't permit them to get a permit.

Read the following sentences aloud:

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4- COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE: conversations-problem solving.

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Practice these tongue - twisters in pairs

1-Betty bought a bit of butter but the bit of butter Betty bought was bitter so Betty bought a better bit of butter and the batter was betterhttp://storynory.com/2008/07/29/betty-butter/

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TEACHING PRINCIPLES:

Setting realistic goals

Integrating pronunciation to listening and speaking skills practice

Being student-centered

Helping learners become self-reliant

ASSESSING PRONUNCIATION

4-Teacher’s feedback

1-Diagnostic:Identifying learners’ pronunciation needs

2-On-going feedback:growing awareness on progress and

focus on improvement

3-Self monitoring and peer feedback

Celce-Murcia et al, 2001

Key points in pronunciation teaching :

Perception and Production

Practice ,practice, and practice

Patience

Relaxing atmosphere, confidence

building, awareness raising

Focus on communication

REFLECTIONS:

Learning pronunciation requires an enormous amount of practice, especially at early stages.

Pronunciation lessons work best if they involve the students in actually speaking, rather than in just learning facts or rules of pronunciation.

Pronunciation teaching works better if the focus is on larger chunks of speech, such as words, phrases and sentences.

Bibliography and webography

Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin (1996) TEACHING PRONUNCIATION. A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge:CUP

Celce-Murcia, Marianne (2001) TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE. United Kingdom:Heinle-Heinle.

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phono.html

http://www.tedpower.co.uk/minimal.html