Pronunciation

Pronunciation is an essential component not only of learning a language

but also of using that language. For this reason, the learning of proper
pronunciation is a delicate area; students need to feel free to make
mistakes and practice their pronunciation in order to increase their
accuracy, but there are also times when pronunciation must be quickly
corrected so that it does not impede the students' ability to understand
and be understood. Below we will look more closely at pronunciation
and activities that can help students improve their pronunciation.

Why is pronunciation important to and for learners?

We know from Higgs Graph of Learner Needs that pronunciation is something that is very
important to beginner learners as it allows them to feel more comfortable when speaking;
teachers must be aware, however, that the more sounds differ between the mother tongue and the
second language, the higher the affective filter. A student feeling too self-conscious will not be
as willing to take the risks that are necessary when learning a new language.

Pronunciation is an interesting area because when learning in a classroom context, pronunciation

isn’t usually a major factor that influences comprehension however, it may be when the learner
uses the SL in the community. The value of teaching pronunciation cannot be underestimated.
Besides the difficulty of changing a `bad habit´, early pronunciation instruction helps students
understand how to form sounds that are not found in their mother tongue, contributes to decoding
ability and lowers the affective filter. Some researchers suggest that pronunciation does not need
to be taught and will `take care of itself´ over time. Others suggest that teaching pronunciation is
necessary. What do you think?
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How can pronunciation affect a learner’s comprehension

and ability to produce language?
Read the following statements and decide whether you agree or disagree.

Adult learners need to focus on pronunciation, but young learners do not.

Poor pronunciation may cause problems for other skills.
Students should learn received pronunciation (RP).
In conveying meaning, stress in pronunciation is sometimes as important
as grammar.
Inaccurate intonation can lead to significant misunderstandings.

It is very difficult to achieve native like pronunciation in any language. Some language societies
have greater tolerance of `accents´ than others; some even find certain accents more appealing.
For example, many Canadian documentaries are narrated by people with British accents. In some
societies people may appear to not understand someone whose accent does not approximate the
native speaker's (e.g. Parisians or Muscovites). In some countries foreign accents are perfectly
acceptable in informal conversations based on helping give directions or sharing simple small
talk; however, in the same places the same accent may not be highly tolerated if the person is a
paid employee who needs to offer service or advice.

In order to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with poor pronunciation it is important to hear as
much of the target language (TL) as possible. This exposure to the TL can be from the teacher,
from films or media clips, songs or audio clips, guest speakers and one’s peers. In general,
realistic goals surrounding pronunciation are:

 Consistency: the pronunciation should become smooth and natural

 Intelligibility: the pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners
 Communicative efficiency: the pronunciation should help convey the meaning intended
by the speaker
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How can I help my students improve their pronunciation?

Pronunciation is an umbrella term that encompasses the interrelated areas of sounds, phonetic
symbols, stress, intonation and rhythm.

Good pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher about
placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in North America, unfortunately, don’t have this
knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as being unimportant but in fact, as you progress in
your fluency, pronunciation becomes more and more important. Language learning needs a lot of
practice and both mechanical and meaningful practice lead to improved pronunciation. Only
through practice will a skill become automatic and drill-like activities are not always considered
interesting. Nevertheless perception practice is a good way to help learners distinguish between
certain sounds.
Some Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation
David F. Dalton
ddalton [at] academ01.chs.itesm.mx
Chiapas, Mexico

Background
When I did my initial training as an E.F.L. teacher, one of the course tutors always described
pronunciation as "the Cinderella of language teaching", i.e. she never got to go to the ball. By this he
was referring to the often low level of emphasis placed on this very important language skill. We are
comfortable teaching reading, writing , listening and to a degree, general oral skills, but when it comes
to pronunciation we often lack the basic knowledge of articulatory phonetics (not difficult to aquire) to
offer our students anything more than rudimentary (and often unhelpful) advice such as, "it sounds like
this ; uuuh".

There is also a tendency for us to focus on production as the main problem affecting our learners.
Most research however, shows clearly that the problem is more likely to be reception - what you
don't hear, you can't say. Moreover, if the "English" sound is not clearly received, the brain of
the learner converts it into the closest sound in their own language . Thus the dental English
fricative / th / (sorry, phonetic symbols can't easily be displayed) in "those" ,becomes converted
by Spanish speakers into the denatlised Spanish /d/ , producing "dose" as this is what the speaker
hears. Given this reality , it would seem logical to place a heavy emphasis on listening
(reception) as a way into releasing appropriate pronunciation (production).

Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of their
pronunciation problems, it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what elements of
English phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems. This is one area of language
learning where few people would question the use of contrastive analysis. For instance, to give
some simple examples, we can predict that Arabic speakers will have difficulty distinguishing
between / p / and / b / , Japanese speakers will not perceive the difference between / l / and / r /
and Spanish speakers will hava a problem realising consonant clusters like [ sts ]. Having
informed him or herself of some of the main areas of contrast between native language and target
language and what difficulties students have, it then remains for the teacher to build this
information into some meaningful classroom exercises.

Techniques :
Exercise should be simple, accessible , fun and combine reception and production. Some students
(usually adults) do feel embarassed to pull ridiculuous faces when practising vowel sounds (this may be
personal or cultural or both) but I have generally found that this soon passes and students enjoy the
pronunciation work. Where possible, exercises should be communicative in that they should (and do
generate differences of opinion and disagreement about what was said/heard. Below are two examples.
Exercise A :
After having taught or exposed the students to long and short vowels through listening and oral work,
the teacher can check recognition, retention and ability to discriminate in the following way. This could
also be used simply for teaching.

Stage 1 :
The teacher writes a variety of words containing the target sounds (long and short vowels) on the board.
The following is just one possible set.

PORT PIT PAT PERT PET POT PUTT PUT PART PEAT
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Here, the only difference in sound is that of the vowel - familiar to anyone who has done minimal pair
work. As in these examples, the word should begin and end with the same consonant. 0, 3, 8, and 9, are
long vowels and the rest are short.

Stage 2 :
The teacher then models each word and individal repetition follows. The vowel sound can be isolated
and the procedure repeated until the teacher is reasonably sure that there are no major problems. He or
she then tells the students that they are going to hear one of the words and must write the number
which corresponds to the word they hear. What the students have written is then checked and
compared.

This automatically leads into a discussion of what they heard and what sounds they are
confusing. If student X heard1 when the teacher said 9, they are confusing the short vowel / I /
with the long vowel / i: / . The teacher gives feedback and the sounds may then be modelled
again and practised.

Stage 3:
Two or three words are then presented together and the procedure repeated. The teacher then tells the
class they are going to hear six words and that the numbers correspond to an important telephone
number. The teacher delivers the words and asks , "What's my number?". Again there will be differences
in what was heard. This allows a focus on which sounds are not being discriminated effectively by which
students and where their problems lie. Later discussion may revolve aroud what strategies students may
employ to improve their discrimination skills - songs, minimal pair games with friends, movies, radio,
etc.

Stage 4:
Learners are then invited to model the telephone number. This stage usually generates much discussion
and disagreement along the lines of - "You said ...... ", "No I did'nt ", "Say it again" and so on and is
usually very lively. The teacher is, of course, the final arbiter of what was really said. The important thing
is that the learners are thinking actively about their pronunciation and how to repair it if necessary. They
also begin to hear themselves (often for the first time) and this is of immeasurable importance in the
retention of sounds.
Exercise B:
This exercise was designed for a multi-lingual class, but is equally effective with monolingual groups. It is
more communictive in nature than Excercise A as it involves giving and carrying out instructions.

Stage 1:
Having identified some problem areas for the class, the teacher makes a list of instructions containing
these. Below is such a list.

1. Draw a sheep on the board. (Spanish speakers often draw a ship).

2. Write the letter "P" above the sheep. (Arabic speakers often write " B").
3. Use the "P" as the start of the word "pleasant" and write the word (Japanese speakers often
write "present ").
4. Write "light" next to pleasant. (Japanese speakers often write "right").
5. Draw a mouse next to the word "light". (Spanish and Japenese speakers often draw a mouth)
6. Draw a pear next to the mouse. (Arabic speakers often draw a bear)

Other examples can be added.

Stage 2:
After presentation and practice of the problem areas, each student is given a piece of paper with an
instruction containing such sounds. The papers are given so that a student will hear an instruction
containing a sound which they have a problem hearing. The instruction is then whispered in the ear of
the receiving student and they carry out what they hear. They sit down and read their instruction to the
next student. This continues until all the instructions have been carried out and there is something
resembling a picture on the board. No comments should be made as the work is in process.

Stage 3: Feedback
There will be reactions from laughter to dismay as the students see how ther instructions were carried
out. The teacher needs to focus the students on what went wrong. Was the problem production or
reception? What did Miko say and what did Joel hear? The dilema pushes the students to correct
themselves and hear what they are saying. The discussions are often very animated and again the
teacher must abitrate. The learners also see the real-life consequences of not producing or not hearing
appropriate English sounds as well as getting personal and class feedback on their problem areas. As in
exercise A, discussion can take place on strategies for pronunciation.

Some Conclusions
1. The exercise allows clear practice in production and reception and gives concise feedback to
individual learners as to where their problms lie in these areas and how to repair them. Often
these are very simple physical questions such as not roundig the lips as in / u: / in fool , which
the teacher can help them focus on.
2. This, in turn, allows discussion on learning strategies for pronunciation which can be drawn up it
the classroom.
3. It is a communicative exercise as it involves disagreement, repair and ( hopefully !) agreement
among other things.
 4. Many language learners feel self concious and negative about their pronunciation . To
effectively deal with this question in the class and enable learners to see an improvement, is
invariably a great psychological boost.
5. I have used these activities with learners from many different cultural and language
backgrounds and they have invariably been seen as both very useful and fun.
6. As teachers, we are often not the best judges of the accuracy of our students' pronunciation .
We are accustomed to it and usually very tolerant when in general, native speakers are not.
Such exercises help us to be more aware of real problems learners have in their oral production
and to help to correct them.
7. Such activities should be an integral part of any language teaching programme as they make
pronunciation an active element of the learning process and focus learners on the language they
are producing.

Thanks to Ray Parker of Sheffield Hallam University; England for the gelephone Game. Some
useful and very accessible constrastive analysis can be seen in the " Ship or Sheep" and "Three
or Tree" series.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 1, January 1997

http://iteslj.org/
http://www.eslflow.com/pronunciationlessonplans.html
Strategies for Improving Pronunciation

Good pronunciation comes from a lot of technical knowledge on the part of the teacher about
placement of the mouth, etc. Most teachers in North America, unfortunately, don’t have this
knowledge and therefore tend to pass it off as being unimportant but in fact, as you progress in
your fluency, pronunciation becomes more and more important. Language learning needs a lot of
practice and both mechanical and meaningful practice lead to improved pronunciation. Only
through practice will a skill become automatic and drill-like activities are not always considered
interesting. Nevertheless perception practice is a good way to help learners distinguish between
certain sounds.

Click on the strategies below to learn more about each one.

#1 SOUNDS #2 STRESS #3 INTONATION

Minimal Pairs Stress Practice Activities Word lists, Minimal Word pairs

Which Order? Target Phrases

Same or Different Sentence manipulation exercises

Odd one out Listen for stress, accent

Completion Pronunciation

Tongue Twisters Real speed

#1 SOUNDS
Minimal pairs
Students look at two words and circle the one they hear:

will well
till tell
fill fell
ship sheep
lid led

Which order
Students see three words and write the order in which they are said.
pit pet bet fill fall fell
1 3 2 2 1 3

Same or different
Students listen to two words and write “S” if they are the same and “D” if they are different

will well met meet well well

Odd one out

The teacher reads a group of words and students must identify which one is different.

bit bit bit pit (#4 is different)

Completion
The teacher reads a series of words and students must write the missing letter of each word:
(gate, late, mate, fate, date, rate and Kate)

__ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate __ate

Tongue twisters
e.g. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

#2 STRESS
Give one sentence to students and ask them to change the stress and explain the meaning.

He is here?
HE is here.
He IS here.

I want two tickets to Toronto.

I want TWO tickets to Toronto.
I WANT two tickets to Toronto.

Practice stress by changing the stress on each word and notice how gestures and voice add to
meaning.

#3 INTONATION
Here are some drill routines to help students hear different sounds.
A. word lists, minimal word pairs
Students listen to three words. Two of the words are the same. They must identify which word
is different.
e. g. mouse, mouse, house
king, kick, kick
please, lease, please

B. target phrases
Students listen to three sentences or phrases (from the dialogue, a poem, song, or an echo
acting). Two of them are the same. They must identify which one is different.
e. g. caught a frog
caught a frog
bought a frog

jumped a fence
pumped a tire
pumped a tire

C. sentence manipulation exercises

e.g. The man ate his dinner.
student repeats: The man ate his dinner.

“lunch”
The student makes appropriate changes: The man ate his lunch.

“boy”
The student makes appropriate changes: The boy ate his lunch.

“girl”
The student makes appropriate changes: The girl ate her lunch.

D. listen for stress, accent

e.g. Which one is correct?
Read one sentence two times and alter the accent on one of them.

E. pronunciation
e.g. work on sounds that are different between English and the target language. th, r/l,

F. real speed
e.g. Tape/video record a newscast in L2 to listen to the speed used by native speakers.

Online Resources
There are probably more online resources for pronunciation than for many other aspects of
language and there are not only commercially available programs but free websites where you
can speak and listen back to yourself. So, if a learner feels it is important, there are a lot of
resources available to them. Here are a few to check out:

http://esl.about.com/library/howto/htpronounce.htm

http://esl.about.com/od/englishreadingskills/a/rtp_pronounce.htm

http://international.ouc.bc.ca/Pronunciation/

http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/

http://www.english-at-home.com/speaking/improving-your-pronunciation/

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic32080.html

http://www.wordhacker.com/en/article/english_pronunciation_important.htm

FRENCH

http://french.about.com/od/lessons/a/pronunciation.htm

http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/French_Pronunciation_Lessons_and_Activities.htm

http://www.fslall.com/learn_french_108.html

MANY languages

http://www.dialogue-languages.com/languages/ear02.html