Teaching pronunciation

- the BVP

- silent "e"

- magic "y"

- "-le" modifier

- radical "r"

- double consonants

Other activities

Pronunciation and spelling activities

Minimal pairs

teachers should tie pronunciation work closely in with spelling work

HOMOGRAPHS

RULES

identification

production

HOMOPHONES

cat / bet / lot

(problematic sounds)

listen for the odd one out

hate / scene / hope / kite / cute

Listening activities

Techniques and activities

lady / tiny / pony / duty

to develop productive and receptive skills

table / idle / noble / bugle

choose words which can be recent or recurrent in the students’ learning experience

OR

use the students’ active vocabulary

Authentic materials: valuable but impractical

(difficult to find suitable materials and design tasks to go with them)

part / term / firm / port / turn

written / daddy / juggle

Drilling

Listening comprehension in coursebooks are often designed to sound as realistic as possible

Eliciting

Students can provide their own minimal pairs to try out on their peers

the teacher models

the class repeats

tendencies like these can be used in discriminatory exercises, dictated, introduced in listening or reading exercises, elicited and drilled, dealt with through crosswords, board games, etc.

the students bring up words or phrases studied

open pair drilling

substitution drilling

students ask questions to each other

An extended listening stage can precede an eliciting and drilling stage. Putting the listening in exercise first might even make the pronunciation elements of the lesson more of an issue with regard to comprehension.

structures are drilled with lexical substitution

Chaining

The combination of pronunciation study with listening activities involves getting students to notice things about the language and its use.

the teacher isolates parts of a sentence, models them separately and gradually builds the sentence up

the students repeat after him/her

Language always needs to be revised and recycled, as there is no guarantee that the features dealt with in a first presentation will be successfully remembered and use.

back-chaining

front-chaining

Reading activities

What pronunciation model to teach?

When a text is read aloud either by the teacher or the students, pronunciation can be integrated

English is spoken all over the world

in countries where it is not the first language

(Lingua Franca)

Different genres can be used:

poems, rhymes, extracts from plays, song lyrics, etc

RP, the Queen’s English, BBC English:

- it says more about social standing than geography

- spoken by only 3% of the population

- few british teachers naturally speak with this accent

READING ALOUD

may be useful to...

Language teachers need to be aware of variations and differences

The more knowledge one has with regard to different accents and varieties of English, the more informed one’s teaching is likely to be.

- study the links between spelling and pronunciation

- work on stress and intonation

- practise linking of the sounds between words in

connected speech

Teachers can, in catering for their students’ needs, work on issues of production and reception independently, enabling students to understand a wide range of varieties, while allowing them to choose their own target model so long as it is widely comprehensible.

A fun way of practising the production of difficult sounds is through the use of tongue-twisters and rhymes

INTEGRATED LESSON

Pronunciation takes place in the overall analysis of the language being practised in the lesson

From reactive to planned teaching

REMEDIAL LESSON

A lesson which focuses on particular language structures or lexis needs to include features of pronunciation in order to give students the full picture

Pronunciation work is slipped into the lesson, when appropriate.

HOW?

- anticipate the pronunciation difficulties students are likely to experience and plan lessons accordingly- integrate pronunciation teaching fully with the study of grammatical and lexical features

PRACTICE LESSON

a class period is based on particular aspects of pronunciation

THROUGH...

- integrated lessons

- remedial or reactive lessons

- practice lessons

Word & sentence stress

Reading aloud

Problems and approaches in pronunciation teaching

CAREFUL! Written sentences are often longer than spoken ones and more grammatically complex (difficult for chunking and NP)

The text has to be chosen carefully. The task should be achievable

• it tends to be neglected
• it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom rather than being strategically planned
• lack of knowledge of pronunciation theory
• classes focused on grammar and vocabulary

Texts:

HOWEVER...

• short biographies
• texts about student's home towns
• accounts of places the students have visited
• short "sketches" or dramatic pieces
• poetry

Students can read texts they have written themselves

Learners often show enthusiasm for pronunciation, they feel it will help them communicate better.

teachers of pronunciation need:

- a good grounding in theoretical knowledge

- practical classroom skills

- access to good ideas for classroom activities

Drama and acting out rehearsed scenes

Perfect opportunity for working on pronunciation

Why teach pronunciation?

Stress placement contributes to the meaning of the lines!

Texts to be used

- the inaccurate production of a phoneme can lead to misunderstanding

- difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand

- inaccurate use of suprasegmental elements may also cause problems

- aspects of a student’s first language can interfere with the pronunciation of a second language

- "waiter" jokes

- scenes from well-known plays or films

- scenes written by the students/teacher

Improvisation can be equally rewarding as a classroom activity!

Teaching Pronunciation

By Gerald Kelly

Chapters 2 & 5