Teaching pronunciation

Features of
pronunciation

Supra-
Phonemes segmental
features
 The main features of pronunciation
PHONEMES

Consonants Vowels

Voiced Unvoiced Single vowels Diphtongs

Short

Long
The articulation of phonemes:
vowels
 front  Examples:
 centre  bead – close front
 back  hat – open front
 dog – open back
 close  food – close back
 mid
 open
The articulation of phonemes:
consonants
 manner of  place of articulation
articulation  bilabial
 plosive  labio-dental
 affricate  alveolar
 fricative  palato-alveolar
 nasal  palatal
 lateral  velar
 approximant  glottal
 The main features of pronunciation
SUPRA-
SEGMENTAL
FEATURES

Intonation Stress

Sentence
Word stress
stress
Suprasegmental features

 Individual words:  Utterances

 pronunciation  intonation (pitch)
 word stess  stress (rhythm)

 communication of
meaning
Phonemic transcription

 lack of a one-to-one relationship

between spelling and pronunciation in
English (e.g. –ough-)

cough through
bough bought
rough thorough
although
How to teach pronunciation

 in a learner-friendly way
Phonemic transcription:
teaching
 introduction of symbols gradual
 sounds which cause difficulty first
 connect it with dictionary work (be aware of
differences in conventions used)
 in Croatia:
 noticing the discrepancy between sound and
spelling (3rd grade)
 recognition and transcription of frequent words
(5th grade)
 ability to read transcription in dictionaries (6th
grade)…
Learner difficulties
 L1 (e.g. no concept of differences between
sound and spelling)
 new sound-spelling relationships
 sound or combination of sounds in L1 that
do not occur in English
 sound or combination of sounds in English
that do not occur in L1
 new (“strange”) stress and intonation
patterns
Why teach pronunciation

 pronunciation errors may inhibit

successful communication
 errors in stress and intonation may
leave the impression of being
abrupt/impolite/bored/overexcited etc.
 not all errors lead to misunderstanding
Problems with pronunciation
teaching

 tends to be neglected (vocabulary and

grammar take precedence)
 reactive to a particular problem rather
than being strategically planned
 What pronunciation model (variety)
should we teach?
Problems with pronunciation
teaching

 teachers should have:

 good theoretical knowledge of the theory
of pronunciation
 practical classroom skills
 access to good ideas for classroom
activities
Lesson types
 Integrated:
 pronunciation forms an essential part of the
language analysis, the language presentation
and practice within the lesson
 Remedial (reactive):
 a pronunciation difficulty is dealt with when it
arises
 Practice:
 a feature of pronunciation is isolated and
practised for its own sake; the main focus of a
lesson
Integrating pronunciation

 when teaching a language structure or

lexis include features of pronunciation
 decide what pronunciation issues are
relevant
 anticipate difficulties
Techniques and activities

 Drilling
 Substitution drilling
 T: It’s in the corner
 L1: It’s in the corner.
 T: It’s on the table.
 L2: It’s on the table.
 etc.
Techniques and activities

 Chaining
 If I’d seen him…
 If I’d seen him, I would’ve…
 I would’ve…
 I would’ve told him.
 If I’d seen him, I would’ve told him.
Techniques and activities

 Minimal pairs
rat rot
soap soup
paper pepper
cat cut
- useful as a way of focusing on sounds
causing difficulties
Techniques and activities

 Minimal pairs
Tasks:

Tick the word which have the sound [Ʌ]:

cap hat bug cup hut bag

Techniques and activities

 Minimal pairs
Tasks:

How many times do you hear [ei]?

pepper paper letter later pen
pain wet wait get gate
Techniques and activities

 Minimal pairs
Tasks: individual or choral drill

Pass me the pepper and the paper.

I’ll post the letter later.
Very well.
Techniques and activities

 Minimal pairs
Tasks:

Listen for the odd one out!

cart class heart learn smart part

Techniques and activities

 connecting pronunciation work with

spelling work:
homographs/homophones
Tasks:

A: Why don’t you read this book?

B: I’ve already read it.
Techniques and activities

 word stress:
Tasks:

Ooo oOo ooO

Syllabus Engagement Usherette

Substitute Banana Kangaroo
Technical phonetic understand
Techniques and activities

 Sentence stress:
 when we say words of more than one syllable in
isolation we stress one of the syllables
 in a sentence, certain syllables will be stressed
in order to convey the most important new
information – this may cancel out normal word
stress
 intonation is used to give further subtleties of
meaning to the syllables we have chosen to
stress
Techniques and activities
 Sentence stress and weak forms
Task:
Compare the use of the word can
and from in the following sentences:

She [kən] swim faster than I [kæn].

She’s [frəm] Scotland. Where are you
[from]?
Teaching word and sentence
stress

 raising awareness
 as part of the language
 marking the stress:
 Ooo
 ushe'rette
 technical
 comPUter
Teaching intonation

 connect intonation with grammar

structure, e.g.:
 information questions (wh-): falling
 yes/no questions: rising
 statements: falling
 imperatives: falling
 question tags: falling (confirmation); rising
(less certainty)
 list of items: rising, rising, falling
A few tips
 pronunciation before introducing the written
word
 later simultaneously
 do not ask the learners to pronounce the
word they do not understand the meaning of
 do not practise pronunciation on uknown
words
 check the pronunciation yourself before
teaching it