PRONUNCIATION
DISCUSS
• a The best model for teaching pronunciation is RP (Received Pronunciation, i.e. the
regionally neutral, prestige accent of Britain).
• b Mispronunciation of individual sounds (the 'small' features) is less important than errors at
the level of stress, intonation and rhythm ('big' features).
• c It is hard to unlearn incorrect habits; therefore it is important to get pronunciation right as
soon as possible.
• d Intelligibility (i.e. being understood) is more important than sounding like a native speaker.
• e One of the best ways of teaching pronunciation is always to speak naturally to the learners.
QUESTIONS
• 1 What aspect of pronunciation is each activity targeting?
Is it a 'small' feature (such as individual sounds) or a 'big' feature (such as sentence
stress or intonation)?
2 Is the objective of the activity reception or production (or both)?
3 Is the feature used in context or is it decontextualised?
4 How communicative is the activity?
Could non-communicative activities be adapted to make them more communicative?
1 WHAT ASPECT OF PRONUNCIATION IS THIS ACTIVITY TARGETING?
2 WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY?
3 IS THE FEATURE USED IN CONTEXT OR IS IT DECONTEXTUALISED?
4 HOW COMMUNICATIVE IS THE ACTIVITY?
• The teacher demonstrates the difference in the pronunciation of the -ed ending on worked,
lived and started.
• She then asks students to make three columns in their books, headed by /t/, /d/ and /id/
respectively.
• She reads out a list of past tense words, e.g. opened, walked, moved, lifted, missed, waited
etc.
• The students write each one in the appropriate column.
1 WHAT ASPECT OF PRONUNCIATION IS THIS ACTIVITY TARGETING?
2 WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY?
3 IS THE FEATURE USED IN CONTEXT OR IS IT DECONTEXTUALISED?
4 HOW COMMUNICATIVE IS THE ACTIVITY?
• The teacher holds up flash cards with items of vocabulary on them.
• She then says the word and has the learners repeat it.
1 WHAT ASPECT OF PRONUNCIATION IS THIS ACTIVITY TARGETING?
2 WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY?
3 IS THE FEATURE USED IN CONTEXT OR IS IT DECONTEXTUALISED?
4 HOW COMMUNICATIVE IS THE ACTIVITY?
• The learners write down 5 things they like and/or dislike
• In a mingle activity, they talk about their preferences and give reasons.
• They must try to find people with the same opinions and report back to the class at the end
of the activity.
1 WHAT ASPECT OF PRONUNCIATION IS THIS ACTIVITY TARGETING?
2 WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY?
3 IS THE FEATURE USED IN CONTEXT OR IS IT DECONTEXTUALISED?
4 HOW COMMUNICATIVE IS THE ACTIVITY?
• The teacher writes one phrase on the board
• She then writes some adjectives to describe emotions (happy, sad, angry, bored, etc.)
• The learners say the phrase with the given emotion.
1 WHAT ASPECT OF PRONUNCIATION IS THIS ACTIVITY TARGETING?
2 WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ACTIVITY?
3 IS THE FEATURE USED IN CONTEXT OR IS IT DECONTEXTUALISED?
4 HOW COMMUNICATIVE IS THE ACTIVITY?
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Can / Can’t
• Failure to discriminate between strong and weak forms
• Use of the same vowel sound
• Failure to articulate the final /t/
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Ordinal numbers
• The “th” sound at the end of regular ordinals.
• Consonant clusters
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Used to
• Tendency to pronounce /s/ as /z/
• Failure to use weak form of to
• Inserting an extra syllable: /ju:sId/
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Present Simple Questions
• Rhythm – particularly the use of the weak forms of do and does
• Assimilation – do you / don’t you
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Would you mind …ing?
• Intonation
• Failure to elide would you
• The /ng/ sound at the end
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Clothing vocabulary
• Vowel phonemes (minimal pairs): shirts / shorts
• Spelling Vs. Pronunciation: suit / shoes
• Word stress in compound nouns: pullover / swim suit
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS
• Present Simple Questions
• Rhythm – particularly the use of the weak forms of do and does
• Assimilation – do you / don’t you
CLASSROOM APPLICATION
• Drilling with focus on natural rhythm and intonation
• ‘Shadowing’ a dialogue
• Identifying the sentence stress and intonation contour on lines of a dialogue
• Identifying weak forms in selected lines of a dialogue
• Using intonation (rather than grammar) to sound more polite
• Counting the number of words they hear
• Performing dialogues and getting feedback / correction on pronunciation
