Strategies for Improving Pronunciation

Good pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher
about placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in North America, unfortunately, dont
have this knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as being unimportant but in fact, as
you progress in your fluency, pronunciation becomes more and more important.
Language learning needs a lot of practice and both mechanical and meaningful practice
lead to improved pronunciation. Only through practice will a skill become automatic and
drill-like activities are not always considered interesting. Nevertheless perception
practice is a good way to help learners distinguish between certain sounds

#1 SOUNDS
Minimal pairs
Students look at two words and circle the one they hear:
will
till
fill
ship
lid

well
tell
fell
sheep
led

Which order
Students see three words and write the order in which they are said.
pit

pet

bet

fill

fall

fell

Same or different
Students listen to two words and write S if they are the same and D if they are
different
will

well

met

meet

well

well

Odd one out

The teacher reads a group of words and students must identify which one is different.
bit

bit

bit

pit

(#4 is different)

Completion
The teacher reads a series of words and students must write the missing letter of each
word: (gate, late, mate, fate, date, rate and Kate)
__ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate
Tongue twisters
e.g. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

#2 STRESS
Give one sentence to students and ask them to change the stress and explain the
meaning.
He is here?
HE is here.
He IS here.
I want two
tickets to Toronto.
I want TWO tickets to Toronto.
I WANT two tickets to Toronto.
Practice stress by changing the stress on each word and notice how gestures and voice
add to meaning.
#3 INTONATION
Here are some drill routines to help students hear different sounds.
A. word lists, minimal word pairs
Students listen to three words. Two of the words are the same. They must identify
which word is different.
e. g.
mouse, mouse, house
king, kick, kick
please, please, please
B. target phrases
Students listen to three sentences or phrases (from the dialogue, a poem, song, or an
echo acting). Two of them are the same. They must identify which one is different.
e. g.
caught a frog
caught a frog
bought a frog
jumped a fence
pumped a tire
pumped a tire
C. sentence manipulation exercises
e.g. The man ate his dinner.
student repeats: The man ate his dinner.lunch
The student makes appropriate changes: The man ate his lunch.boy
The student makes appropriate changes: The boy ate his lunch.
girlThe student makes appropriate changes: The girl ate her lunch.
D. listen for stress, accent
e.g. Which one is correct?
Read one sentence two times and alter the accent on one of them.
E. pronunciation
e.g. work on sounds that are different between English and the target language. th, r/l,
F. real speed
e.g. Tape/video record a newscast in L2 to listen to the speed used by native speakers.

A student's first language often interferes with English pronunciation. For example, /p/ is
aspirated in English but not in Spanish, so when a Spanish speaker pronounces 'pig'
without a puff of air on the /p/, an American may hear 'big' instead. Sometimes the
students will be able to identify specific problem sounds and sometimes they won't. You
can ask them for suggestions, but you will also need to observe them over time and
make note of problem sounds. Another challenge resulting from differences in the first
language is the inability to hear certain English sounds that the native language does not
contain. Often these are vowels, as in 'ship' and 'sheep,' which many learners cannot
distinguish. The Japanese are known for confusing /r/ and /l/, as their language contains
neither of these but instead has one sound somewhere between the two. For problems
such as these, listening is crucial because students can't produce a sound they can't
hear. Descriptions of the sound and mouth position can help students increase their
awareness of subtle sound differences.
Here are some ideas for focusing on specific pronunciation features.
VoicingVoiced sounds will make the throat vibrate. For example, /g/ is a voiced
sound while /k/ is not, even though the mouth is in the same position for both sounds.
Have your students touch their throats while pronouncing voiced and voiceless
sounds. They should feel vibration with the voiced sounds only.
AspirationAspiration refers to a puff of air when a sound is produced. Many
languages have far fewer aspirated sounds than English, and students may have
trouble hearing the aspiration. The English /p/, /t/, /k/, and /ch/ are some of the more
commonly aspirated sounds. Although these are not always aspirated, at the
beginning of a word they usually are. To illustrate aspiration, have your students hold
up a piece of facial tissue a few inches away from their mouths and push it with a puff
of air while pronouncing a word containing the target sound.
Mouth PositionDraw simple diagrams of tongue and lip positions. Make sure all
students can clearly see your mouth while you model sounds. Have students use a
mirror to see their mouth, lips, and tongue while they imitate you.
IntonationWord or sentence intonation can be mimicked with a kazoo, or
alternatively by humming. This will take the students' attention off of the meaning of
a word or sentence and help them focus on the intonation.
LinkingWe pronounce phrases and even whole sentences as one smooth sound
instead of a series of separate words. 'Will Amy go away,' is rendered
'Willaymeegowaway.' To help learners link words, try starting at the end of a sentence
and have them repeat a phrase, adding more of the sentence as they can master it.
For example, 'gowaway,' then 'aymeegowaway,' and finally 'Willaymeegowaway'
without any pauses between words.
Vowel LengthYou can demonstrate varying vowel lengths within a word by
stretching rubber bands on the longer vowels and letting them contract on shorter
ones. Then let the students try it. For example, the word 'fifteen' would have the
rubber band stretched for the 'ee' vowel, but the word 'fifty' would not have the band
stretched because both of its vowels are spoken quickly.
Syllables
o Have students count syllables in a word and hold up the correct number of

fingers, or place objects on table to represent each syllable.

o Illustrate syllable stress by clapping softly and loudly corresponding to the
syllables of a word. For example, the word 'beautiful' would be loud-soft-soft.
Practice with short lists of words with the same syllabic stress pattern
('beautiful,' 'telephone,' 'Florida') and then see if your learners can list other
words with that pattern.
Specific Sounds
o Minimal pairs, or words such as 'bit/bat' that differ by only one sound, are
useful for helping students distinguish similar sounds. They can be used to
illustrate voicing ('curl/girl') or commonly confused sounds ('play/pray').
Remember that it's the sound and not the spelling you are focusing on.
o Tongue twisters are useful for practicing specific target sounds, plus they're
fun. Make sure the vocabulary isn't too difficult.
o The Sounds of English, American Accent Training, and EnglishClub.com
websites below offer guidelines for describing how to produce various English
sounds. You can find representative practice words for every English sound on
the English is Soup site.

stretching rubber bands on the longer vowels and letting them contract on
shorter ones. Then let the students try it. For example, the word 'fifteen' would
have the rubber band stretched for the 'ee' vowel, but the word 'fifty' would not
have the band stretched because both of its vowels are spoken quickly.

Syllables
o Have students count syllables in a word and hold up the correct number of
fingers, or place objects on table to represent each syllable.
o Illustrate syllable stress by clapping softly and loudly corresponding to the
syllables of a word. For example, the word 'beautiful' would be loud-soft-soft.
Practice with short lists of words with the same syllabic stress pattern
('beautiful,' 'telephone,' 'Florida') and then see if your learners can list other
words with that pattern.
Specific Sounds
o Minimal pairs, or words such as 'bit/bat' that differ by only one sound, are
useful for helping students distinguish similar sounds. They can be used to
illustrate voicing ('curl/girl') or commonly confused sounds ('play/pray').
Remember that it's the sound and not the spelling you are focusing on.
o Tongue twisters are useful for practicing specific target sounds, plus they're
fun. Make sure the vocabulary isn't too difficult.
o The Sounds of English, American Accent Training, and EnglishClub.com
websites below offer guidelines for describing how to produce various English
sounds. You can find representative practice words for every English sound on
the English is Soup site.

1. First introduce the basic emphasis pattern of English to students to let them know
that content words are usually emphasized. Then, have students circle or underline
content words in a sentence and give these words extra emphasis when saying the
sentence.
For example:
He wants to be an actor, and he wants to live in Hollywood
2) Rhymes. Apply the rhythm of nursery rhymes to the rhythm of ordinary sentences.
HICKory DICKory DOCK The MOUSE ran UP the CLOCK
Do it according to plan Id like to cash a check.
Give me a burger with cheese. Hed rather take the bus.
II-3. Linking
One of the essential characteristics of spoken English is that the words in a thought
group are linked together (Gilbert, 1993)
Mortimer (1997) also talked about the importance of linking: to pronounce English
fluently, it is necessary to
link words together as a native speaker of English normally does. There are some
techniques to apply in teaching linking.
1) Chain pictures. Use chains to give a
visual image of spoken English. For example,
Thank you

Pick it up

Cup of tea

2) Curved lines. Use the curved line between the last and first letters to indicate they
need to be linked together. For example,III.
Consonants. There are several strategies to teach consonants, according to Lin, Fan and
Chen (1995).
1) Song lyrics. Teachers can ask students to read some popular song lyrics aloud to
practice
final consonants.

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright Round young virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, so tender and mild.Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace......