Teaching Pronunciation Despite the fact that you could have an excellent vocabulary and grammar knowledge, pronunciation is a key factor for learners to be able to communicate and be understood perfectly. We as learners generally tend to rise up our voices at the end of a sentence, giving the listener a subtle hint that we are in fact asking a question, this intonation pattern is key to the listeners, as it could lead to confusion without it causing the listener to think we´ve made a statement instead of the latter. In English, there are 44 different sounds and only 26 letters, this means that many letters are used to represent different sounds such as time (Shorter time for apple than for car) phonetic (Can and Cinema) and multiple letters can have a single sound, like the letter U in Put, Book and Could. U, OO and OU all sound like the letter U. English is not a phonetic language, Spanish and Italian are good examples of phonetic languages, even Russian, Japanese and polish. This phonetic mismatch can be very frustrating for learners. So, how to work in pronunciation…. 1. Pronunciation needs to be integrated into teaching so that students can learn the written and spoken form of words at the same time. 2. Take a careful approach when modeling and drilling grammar to their students. 3. Use tools such as Phonemic Charts. 4. Draw attention to groups of words with the same spelling and sound patterns like: Should, Could and Would 5. Teach different pronunciation patterns used all over the world. Impersonate famous people as a way to make the pronunciation class a bit more fun and dynamic. 80% of English words are spelt according to regular patterns while only 500 words do not conform to these patterns. English has 21 consonant represented by 24 sounds and 5 vowels representing 20 sounds, therefore the latter tends to be more complex for learners. Beware of these combination of words: Gets – Has Brother – Plumber Phone – Photo Cap/Cut – Cape Cute Where – Somewhere. The Wh never in the end. Features of pronunciation are divided into four main areas: 1. Phonemes 2. Stress 3. Intonation 4. Connected Speech Phonemic Chart Activities for practicing phonemes A phoneme a day Associating sounds with ideas Which vowel am i? (For multiple students) Odd one out. E.g: Good, Would, Bull Sound Pictures (Busy pictures with lots of things to name) Word Stress Necessity/Teacher/Banana/Kangaroo Categorizing each word can help. If students find it difficult they can try saying the word as a question. The schwa sound [E in French] commonly found in unstressed syllables. Sometimes in the whole word like in Thorough To teach the importance of stress words is a key aspect of pronunciation success. Sentence Stress He lives in a house on the corner. Perfect example. I’ll walk with you to the station. Practice these with dictation, dialogues from tv shows, reading aloud, listening activities, etc. Intonation This one is pretty self-explanatory. Tone This one is more from emotions, angry, bored, listened… Don’t answer me in that tone! Students often fail to get the right tone because their minds are busy trying to say the word right. It’s important to practice tone with dialogues, role-play, etc. Connected speech Methods for connecting speech. 1. Assimilation How sounds modify each other when they meet. E.g.: That Book to thap book, it is easier to connect p when speaking rapidly. Two words can also make new sound when combined like in “Last Year” [Ch] and “Would You” [Sh] 2. Elision It’s when parts of a word disappear when speaking normally, like in “Next week” “Used to” and sometimes the shway sound in unstressed syllables like in the word “Police” 3. Linking & Intrusion Basically linking is when it is used from consonant to vowel like “Canaihavanapple” and intrusion occurs when matching vowel to vowel and we add a letter to ease this transition like in “The end Theyend” Or “Go in – Gowin” or “I agree – Eyeagree” 4. Contraction When we shorten sentences, like I’m, I’ve and I’d. This ends the pronunciation module, remember, in the early stages, trying is more important than perfection!
