TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

 The importance of pronunciation

 Pronunciation is important since successful communication cannot take place without
correct pronunciation.
 Pronunciation is necessary for both comprehensible and effective speech and for the
learning of new forms in an L2. It helps learners build a framework for how the new
language functions.
 General issues on teaching pronunciation
 The teaching of pronunciation should focus on the students’ ability to identify and produce
English sounds themselves. Students should NOT be led to focus on reading and writing
phonetic transcripts of words, especially young students, because phonetic transcripts are
more abstract and less meaningful.
 Introduction to phonetic rules should be avoided at the beginning stage.
 Stress and intonation should be taught from the very beginning.
 Why can most learners not acquire native pronunciation?
To answer the question, we must take into consideration three things:
 Learners whose native language has similar sounds to English vs. those whose native
language has very different sounds from English.
 Learners who have more exposure to English vs. Those who only learn English in the class;
 Adult learners vs. Young ones.
1. Age: the Critical Period Hypothesis
 The hypothesis claims that if humans do not learn a foreign language before a certain age
(perhaps around puberty), then it becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like a
native speaker because of changes such as maturation of the brain.
Most people agree that those who learn a foreign language after puberty will have an accent.

2. The amount of exposure to English: at the present time, most Vietnamese learners of English do
not have enough exposure to English to acquire native-like pronunciation.
3. The learner’s innate ability: students have different phonetic activities due to biological and
physiological differences. Some are more sensitive to sounds and are better at imitating
sounds than others.
 Common problems that are likely to occur
Pronunciation problems will of course vary from one country to another. Some problems that are
likely to occur:
 Difficulty in pronouncing sounds which do not exist in the students’ L1, e.g: for many
students, the consonant /ð/ in ‘this’ and the vowel /æ/ in ‘man’.
 Confusion of similar sounds, e.g: /i:/ and /i/ or /b/ and /p/
 Use of simple vowels instead of diphthongs, e.g: /desk/
 Tendency to give all syllables equal stress, and a ‘flat’ intonation.
I. INDIVIDUAL SOUNDS
a. Focusing on a difficult sound
There is normally no need to teach the sounds of English individually; students are able to ‘pick
up’ the sound system of the language by listening to the teacher and by practising words and
structures. However, there may be particular sounds or sound combinations which students
find difficult, or students may simply make mistakes in pronunciation without being aware of
it. In such cases, it is useful to focus on the sound which causes the difficulty.
b. When is pronunciation taught?
 Whole lesson: spending the whole lesson on pronunciation
 Discrete slots: spending some portion of the lesson on pronunciation
 Integrated phases: teaching as an integral part of the teaching of skills
 Opportunistic teaching: teaching when pronunciation becomes a problem to learning
c. Presenting sounds
The basic steps:
- The teacher says the sound clearly in isolation (so that students can focus on it) and in one
or two words and for students to repeat the sound, in chorus and individually.
- If students confuse two similar sounds, it is obviously useful to contrast them so that
students can hear the difference clearly
- If students have difficulty in producing a particular sound (usually because it does not exist
in their own language), it is often very useful to describe how it is pronounced, as long as
this can be done in a way that students understand (using simple English or their own
language).
- Writing words on the board is not necessary, and could confuse the students- the focus
should be on pronunciation, not on spelling.
d. Practising sounds
 Minimal pairs
Minimal pairs are pairs of words which only differ in one feature, e.g: sing- song; park-bark;
ship-sheep... They can be used to focus on differences in vowel or consonant sounds.
 Minimal pair drill
i) Say the word ‘will’ and ‘well’ in random order, and ask students to tell the number of the
word each time (aural practice).
If you hear the sound /i/, say one. If you hear the sound/e/, say two.
T: well Ss: two
T: will Ss: one
T: will Ss: one
ii) Say other words which have either the sound /i/ or /e/. Students say which number fits
the word
T: bell Ss: two
T: fill Ss: one
T: win Ss: one
 Missing words
The teacher says short sentences or phrases in which one word is missing. The students
guess the word, which contains the sound that the teacher wishes to practise (the
sentences do not of course need to be written)
 Ex: Say the sentence and ask the students to give the missing word
Children love to .............games.
Black and white together make.............
After April comes ..................
II. STRESS
 Stress refers to the amount of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered.
 Weak forms
Most words with two or three syllables have one stressed (or ‘strong’) syllable and two or more
unstressed (or ‘weak’) syllables. Often the vowel in the unstressed syllables is pronounced as /ə/ or
/i/. We call them reduced vowels.

 Word stress
1. A syllable can carry primary stress, that is to say strong stress. The syllable is longer, louder and
said with more breath effort.
2. A syllable can be unstressed. In other words it is said very quickly, lightly and with very little
breath effort.
3. A syllable can carry secondary stress. This syllable is said with more breath effort than 2 but
less than 1.
 Sentence stress
In a normal English sentence, certain words are stressed and certain words are unstressed.
Normally the stressed words are content words – the words that are essential for conveying a
message. These are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and demonstratives. The unstressed words
are form words, the grammatical or structure words. These words are not essential to the
communication of a message.
Ex: I ‘saw your ‘brother ‘yesterday.
Would you ‘like a ‘glass of ‘beer?
Can I ‘carry your ‘suitcase?
I must be ‘going.
My ‘wife’s ‘waiting for me at the ‘corner of the ‘street.
 Techniques for teaching stress
1. Using your voice:
- Say the sentence, exaggerating the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables.
- Representing each syllable with a sound, e.g: a kilo of sugar = de-DA-de-de-DA-de.
2. Using gestures:
- Thump the air when saying the stressed syllable
- Make a downward stroke of the hand – marking the beat like a conductor
- Punch the palm of the hand.
- Clap your hands
- Bang your hand against something
3. Using blackboard
- Underline the stressed syllables: a kilo of sugar
- Write the stressed syllables in heavier letters: a KIlo of Sugar
III. INTONATION
 Functions of intonation: Basically there are two functions of intonation:
1. It indicates grammatical meaning.
He lives in London. Do you come from London?
He lives in London? You come from London?
2. It indicates functions.

Sorry! (Apology) Sorry? (please repeat)

3. It can change meaning
I want to see your son ‘Harry’.
I want to see your son Harry.
Mary said her mother had gone to the cinema. (Mary’s words are being reported. It is her
mother who has gone to the cinema)
Mary, said the mother, had gone to the cinema.
4. It indicates the speaker’s attitude
Really?  an expression of great surprise or merely a polite conversation oilier, depending
on the intonation pattern.
 Intonation patterns
For teaching oral English at a fairly low level, teachers need to be aware of two basic
intonation patterns:
- Rising tone: used in asking Yes/No questions, and to express surprise, disbelief, etc.
The voice rises sharply on the stressed syllable

Really? Is he your friend? Do you want some tea?

- Falling tone: used for normal statements, commands, and for WH-questions. The
voice rises slightly earlier in the sentence, and then falls on the key word being
stressed.

Open your book, please How long have you been learning English

 Practising stress and intonation

Mood and attitude

The teaching of intonation in the early stages should concentrate on the grammatical and not the
attitudinal function. We do not accept a dull, monotonous disinterested tone. We do want the
learners to sound polite, friendly, and interested. However, students are often shy and
embarrassed rather than unable to produce the required pattern. The teacher needs to create the
right atmosphere in the classroom to overcome the students’ reticence.

Mood cards: one indicating a bored, uninterested mood. The other is bright, lively, enthusiastic
mood. These act as aids to correction whenever the dull intonation pattern is produced.
 Mr Grumpy Mr Happy

For more advanced level, a more sophisticated contrast can be set up, using mood card.

a. A bored, overworked immigration officer at an airport (role A - ) and a tired, hungry, bad
tempered traveler (role B- )
b. A handsome, young man (role A- ) and an attractive girl in a disco (role B- )

In short

The easiest way for students to practise stress and intonation is by repetition. If the focus is on
pronunciation, traditional ‘repetition drills’, which are often boring for students to do, can be made
interesting and challenging; students are not asked simply to repeat a sentence, but to repeat it
using a ‘particular stress and intonation pattern’, for this to be effective, it is important for
teachers to:
- Give a good model of the sentence themselves, saying it at normal speed, making a clear
distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables, and using natural intonation;
- Indicate the stress and intonation clearly, using gestures.
- Make sure that the students pay attention to stress and intonation when they repeat the
sentence.
Back chaining can be used as a part of repetition drill.
i) Say the whole sentence. Show the stress and intonation using gestures. Students listen.
T: listen. How long have you been living here?
ii) Students repeat, starting from the end
T: living here. Living here. Everybody
Ss: living here
T: been living here.
Ss: been living here.
T: have you been living here.
Ss: have you been living here.
T: how long have you been living here?
Ss: how long have you been living here?
iii) Groups of students repeat the whole sentence, then individual students.
T: (gesture to indicate a group)
G: How long have you been living here?