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Pronunciation

Introduction:

"Pronunciation" refers to the way in which we make the sound of words.

To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocal chords, through
our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips. (Sometimes air also travels
through our nose.)

To change the sound that we are making, we mainly use the muscles of our mouth, tongue and
lips to control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air. If we can control the shape of our
mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people
understand us more easily.

Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles of the mouth for
pronunciation. When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be well developed for
that language, and we will find pronunciation more difficult. By practicing the foreign language
pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves.

As well as creating correct vowel and consonant sounds using the muscles of our mouth, tongue
and lips, there are other important aspects of pronunciation, including:

 word stress - emphasis on certain syllables in a word

 sentence stress - emphasis on certain words in a sentence

 linking - joining certain words together

 intonation - the rise and fall of our voice as we speak

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Teaching language in classroom:

There are many things that English teachers need to fit into their limited class time like grammar,
vocabulary, speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Pronunciation often gets pushed to the
bottom of the list. Many teachers say there’s just not enough time to teach pronunciation.
Students often think it isn’t that important after all, it won’t be tested on their college entrance
exams! But if students need or want to speak English understandably, pronunciation is important.
The days when learners only needed reading and writing skills in English are past. Depending on
where you teach, many or all of your students will need to speak and understand English in real
life to communicate with both native speakers of English and speakers of other languages. Even
if students’ grammar and vocabulary are strong, if their pronunciation isn’t easy to understand,
their communication will fail. We owe it to our students to give them the tools they’ll need to be
able to communicate successfully in English.

Over the years, styles of language teaching have changed greatly, and the same is true of
teaching pronunciation. In some time periods, teaching pronunciation has been considered
extremely important, while at other times it hasn’t been given much attention at all. Trends in
teaching pronunciation are like a swinging pendulum the emphasis goes from one extreme to the
other. Until recently, the focus in pronunciation teaching was almost entirely on producing
individual sounds and words correctly; not much attention was given to features such as
intonation and rhythm. In the last 20 years or so, however, teachers and researchers have begun
to realize the importance of these “musical” aspects of pronunciation and to emphasize them
more strongly in teaching.

Individual sounds is not so important, and intonation, stress, prominence, and rhythm should be
emphasized above all. It seems more practical, though, to realize that no single aspect of
pronunciation can stand on its own. Our students can benefit from learning about both individual
sounds and the musical aspects of pronunciation, and we need to find a balance between these
two areas. The pendulum of teaching trends might keep swinging, but we don’t have to let it
knock us down. Choose methods and activities that combine both aspects of pronunciation so
that the combination works best for learners.
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Observation of Teachers Teaching in Class 4 and Class 5

School name: Soar Stem System

Qualification and experience:

Interviewee 1:

 Qualification: Masters in accounting

 Teaching experience: 14 years
 Formal training in language: Yes, she had done language course
 Medium of instruction of Her Education: English medium
 Experience in learning phonetics and phonology: No

Interviewee 2:

 Qualification: Masters in business administration, masters in leadership management in

education
 Teaching experience: 8 years
 Formal training in language: No! but informal training workshops conducted by schools
 Medium of instruction of Her Education: English medium
 Experience in learning phonetics and phonology: No!
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The task was to observe how teachers pronunciation in language teaching class. We observed
class 4 and class 5.

We observed teachers on the following questions:

Here is a checklist

 Has she received a lot of training in pronunciation, only a little, or perhaps none at all?
 How much practice have they had?
 Does the teacher use the strategy of ‘Repeat after me’?
 Were the teacher interested in pronunciation, or did she consider it be only unnecessary
fluff?
 Is it even possible that I their own education, they had been provided an extreme
inaccurate model?
 Does she train students for positioning of tongue, lips and jaw for accurate pronunciation
of a word?
 Does she gets bilingual in the class while teaching?
The pronunciation was noted on following pattern

Very slow average very fast

Speech rate
Volume
Intonation
Word linkage and flow is

Rarely sometimes often always

Content word stress is used effectively
Syllables are stressed correctly
Words endings are pronounced clearly
At the end wrong pronunciation words were noted
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Detail of interview and observation

 Has she received a lot of training in pronunciation, only a little, or perhaps none at all?

 Interviewee 1: It was noted that she did not received any training in pronunciation rather
she had informal training workshops in language but not specifically in pronunciation.
 Interviewee 2: No, she did not possess any formal training in pronunciation nor informal
training.

 How much practice have they had?

 Interviewee 1: They do practice before lesson and use internet tutorial to teach
students.
 Interviewee 2: According to her, as she had much experience in teaching, so she don’t
need such kind of practice.

 Does the teacher use the strategy of ‘Repeat after me’?

 Interview 1: She told that she did not use the strategy of ‘repeat after me’, she just correct
students if they pronounce word wrong.
 Interview 2: She said that it depends on time, they had lot of activities to do so
they don’t give priority to it.

 Were the teacher interested in pronunciation, or did she consider it be only unnecessary
fluff?

 Interviewee 1: According to her, she was not interested in pronunciation as there

is lot of syllabus to cover so they can’t give proper attention to students as they
have less time.
 Interviewee 2: She said that it is not east to train student as the words which are
wrongly pronounced are not easy to change.

 Is it even possible that in their own education, they had been provided an extreme
inaccurate model?
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 Interviewee 1: Conferring to her, her education system was best as her language
teacher was superlative, her pronunciation was outclass so she didn’t find it
inaccurate.
 Interviewee 2: She said that her teachers were average in language teaching, they
were hardworking but pronunciation was not up to the mark.

 Does she train students for positioning of tongue, lips and jaw for accurate pronunciation
of a word?

 Interviewee 1: No! She don’t train students in this way.

 Interviewee 2: No! She don’t train students in this way.

 Does she gets bilingual in the class while teaching?

 Interviewee 1: Yes, she was bilingual.

 Interviewee 2: No, she was not bilingual.

The pronunciation was noted on following pattern

Interviewee 1

Very slow average very fast

Speech rate
Volume
Intonation
Word linkage and flow is

Rarely sometimes often always

Content word stress is used effectively

Syllables are stressed correctly
Words endings are pronounced clearly
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Interviewee 2:

Very slow average very fast

Speech rate
Volume
Intonation
Word linkage and flow is

Rarely sometimes often always

Content word stress is used effectively

Syllables are stressed correctly

Words endings are pronounced clearly

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Analysis

It was observed that both teachers did not possess any formal training in phonetics and
phonology. Although they do practice pronunciation. According to them, there is too much work
load that they cannot emphasis on pronunciation.

Class 4 teacher was not bilingual but class 5 teacher was bilingual. They even don’t focus on use
of tongue while teaching language. However it is very important to mention that none of them
have education in language and still they are teaching language. Due to work load, they cannot
focus on pronunciation and they also believe that it is not easy to change the wrong
pronunciation of learners in a correct pronunciation form as learners don’t accept it hurriedly. So
lot of hard work is required which unfortunately lack in institutions due to work load.

Here is the list of words that both interviewee wrongly pronounced while teaching lesson:

 Would
 Thought/think
 Woman
 Almond
 Bowl
 History
 Jewelry
 Athlete
 immediately
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Conclusion

Teachers need to teach pronunciation effectively, they need several types of knowledge:

• They need to know the facts about pronunciation: How speakers’ mouths move when they
produce the sounds of language, and how word stress, rhythm, connected speech, and intonation
work.

• They need to understand and be able to predict the kinds of problems their students might have
with pronunciation and why they happen.

• They need to know many ways to teach pronunciation to their students, adapting different
methods to fit them and their needs, and helping them practice effectively to overcome any
problems they might have. They also need to know these basic principles of teaching
pronunciation.

• Include more than just “repeat after me.” Having students listen to a recording or to the
teacher’s voice and then repeat is a useful part of a pronunciation lesson, but by itself it is not
enough.

• Encourage students to use more than one of their senses, which is more effective anyway. We
can use many different ways of learning through sight, sound, and movement to help students
understand and remember better.

• Keep lessons practical. For most students, even adults, theory and technical explanations are
hard to understand and are easily forgotten. Simple, concrete demonstrations followed by lots of
practice produce better results. Lessons need to fit our students’ level of understanding.

• Include communicative practice whenever possible. Students need to work toward using their
new pronunciation in real speech. During class, we can help them practice in activities that are
similar to real communication.

• Train students to become independent and autonomous learners. Our students won’t be with us
forever. Someday they’ll be facing pronunciation puzzles on their own. If we can help them
build up their own skills in listening, imitating, and monitoring their own pronunciation, it will
be a big help to them in their future learning.
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Pronouncing sounds involves both our minds and our bodies. When we learn new sounds, we
need to learn to move the muscles of our mouth in new ways and change the pronunciation
habits we’ve built up all through our life. This isn’t easy, and like learning any other muscular
activity, it takes a long time. Most people can’t learn to dance or to play a musical instrument
immediately; they have to start out slowly, practice a lot, and gradually build up speed and skill.
Our mouth also needs to build up muscle memory, the ability to do something more easily after
practicing it many times. Our muscles begin to “remember” how to move in a certain way
because they’ve done it so often. Teaching pronunciation also takes time. As teachers, we can’t
just teach something once and expect our students to master it right away. We need to come back
to the same point again and again, giving students lots of review and continued practice.