Teaching Pronunciation Tips

Teaching pronunciation is simple and straightforward, if you just get off to the right start.

Remember to start at the beginning. Before you get into the pronunciation of words, focus on sounds. Spending a little time on leaning phonemes at the beginning will pay off for your students later when they are improving their pronunciation of complex vocabulary.

• Start with helping students to hear English phonemes. For example, perceiving the difference between /l/ and /r/ has to come before Japanese students will consistently produce it correctly in speech. ? Get mouth diagrams for each of the phonemes. If you can find flash animations of the actual mouth movements, even better. You should also practice drawing the diagrams yourself for when you want to illustrate a point of pronunciation on the fly. Once they can see how they should be positioning their lips, tongues, and teeth, students will be able to start re-training their muscles to make a new set of sounds.
• Run through all the English phonemes, and then focus just on the ones your students have trouble with. Don't waste time on phonemes that overlap with the students' native language.
• Fit your teaching tactics to your students. Young students or kinesthetic learners improve the most through lots of oral repetition; older students, or those with a more analytical approach, improve with the use of diagrams and may even benefit from learning the phonetic alphabet symbols. Of course, it is not a case of either / or, but rather one of finding the right balance.
  

Once your students have mastered the basic phonemes, especially the long and short vowels, the class will be ready to move on to word-level pronunciation practice.

• Teach spelling patterns with word-level pronunciation practice. Associating the phonemes with the correct spelling patterns will help student to internalize English spelling rules and make sounding out written words easier.
  
  Have students tap out a word's phonemes in isolation on their fingertips, then have them bring the fingers together as they pronounce the word as a whole. This practice helps them internalize the pattern of English pronunciation and is especially good practice for kinesthetic learners. Tapping out the sounds rather than the letters also breaks them of the habit of trying to pronounce silent letters.

• Sort one-syllable words into families, meaning you group them together by rhyming. This is especially good practice for learning the short vowels.
  

Once you start learning multiple syllable words, be sure to teach the students how to count syllables, and how to read the most common pronunciation notations in dictionaries, especially for the indication of the stressed syllable. We generally think of pronunciation practice as being fulfilled at the level of words, but in fact, English uses intonation in several important ways at the sentential level. There is also rhythm to be considered, and the use of contractions.

• The difference between the intonation of a statement and a question should be gone over with the study of questions in grammar. Also, the way the voice rises and falls when reading a list or completing a statement. These are all subtle cues that native speakers use to structure their conversations. Students can also practice this as they read aloud.
• Jazz chants and poetry are useful in working on the rhythm of English. Some kinds of rap songs are also good, although most of these are violent and have inappropriate language so instead have students make their own up for homework or in groups as a collaborative exercise.
• Reading aloud and/or reciting poetry or memorized passages can also be a great low stress way for students to focus on all levels of their pronunciation. Since they don't have to come up with any clever words, the students are free to focus on the sounds of the words and sentences as well as the intonation.
• If your students are doing well with pronunciation of isolated words, but can't seem to manage to hold a whole conversation, you might want to consider what other factors might be getting in the way.
• Cultural identity may be wrapped up in speaking a certain way, including an accent. Don't force students to give that up. Instead, place the emphasis on being intelligible, while still using the patois and slang that the student takes pride in. Encourage code-switching between standard English and a street wise Spanglish or whatever the student's first language is.
• Everyone has an accent – even native speakers. Americans don't sound like the British, and the Australians are in a class by themselves. If we don't all sound alike then we can't expect brand new language learners to all sound the same. Finally, as you move through these different levels of pronunciation practice, don't be afraid to go back and review occasionally, especially the connections between phonemes and spelling. And always remember to include listening practice as well as speaking practice, since if students can't hear a particular phoneme, they won't be able to produce it consistently.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shelley Vernon promotes learning through English language games and activities.  Pronunciation games are included in these two resources: Digital Book of 163 Games and Activities for teens and adults or: English Language Games for Children