Literacy Council of Montgomery County MD
Handout #12
Rev. 2/12/15
Tips, Tricks, and Methods in Pronunciation
Tongue twisters and short
sentences to repeat
sounds
Bob Brown buys bagels. Peter Piper picks peppers. Dan’s
dogs dig dirt.
Echo reading
Tutor reads, student reads after, trying to recreate sound.
Tapes, CDs
Student listens to sounds, words, or sentences, then
repeats, trying to recreate sound and intonation
Children’s books
Read aloud to practice intonation and expression
Mirrors
both look in mirror so student can compare tutor’s mouth
with hers
Diagrams
draw diagram of what is happening inside the mouth
Key sounds
give the student a memorable example, like a chart word, to
remember when having difficulty (ex. b-b-b-b-b)
Voiced/voiceless
consonants
Nasals (m, n, ng)
feel vocal cords vs. diaphragm, use tissue
Ch, J
These sounds are combinations of t-sh and d-zh. Teach by
successive approximation
Word stress
beat out stressed syllables
Intonation
start with Green Eggs and Ham, followed by reading
anything rich in dialog
rereading stories with expression
Sentence Stress
Stressed words are the ones most significant to the
meaning. Articles, pronouns, prepositions almost never
stressed. Needs explanation, analysis, and practice. Best
taught in Book 3 and 4.
Focus on Phonics
contains exercises for many pronunciation problems
Reverse minimal pairs
Give students two contrasting sounds, and ask what other
words contain those sounds. Make lists.
Expanded reverse
minimal pairs
Do above, then have student go down each list and give
the equivalent contrasting word. If the first word is “till,” the
student needs to give “tell;” if it is “beg,” the word is “big.”
Make sure they understand they are only producing sounds
and that these are not all real, meaningful words.
pinch nose while saying, to show that is where the air is
coming from
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Literacy Council of Montgomery County MD
Handout #12
Rev. 2/12/15
Other Important Elements Affecting Speech
Word Level
 Syllable Stress – thirty v. thirteen

Syllable Reduction – Unstressed syllables are reduced (“dya,” not “do you;” “hafta,”
not “have to”) or disappear
Sentence Level
 Intonation
key to symbols: ↑ voice goes up; ↓ voice goes down; ↔ voice stays level; │pause; stress
Three main Sentence Melodies in English (full sentences)
1. Declarative sentence, question words (Who, what, etc.) go down at end
↓
↓
↓
↓
No. Wednesday.
What.
I have a book.
2. Question (do/be, questions from a declarative, with no grammatical cue)
↑
↑
↑
Do you have a book?
Are you happy?
You have a book?
3. Exclamation – heavy stress, pause between most meaningful words; in a short
exclamation, voice does not rise or fall
↔
No │way!
Help!
Sentence intonation is also used for word segments representing grammatical
entities and depends on speaker’s dialect, speed, and deliberateness of speech.
Pauses and intonation indicate importance and thought groups. For example,
consider the different ways of saying the following sentence:
The man who came to dinner wore a red hat (1 intonation)
The man who came to dinner │ wore a red hat (2)
The man │ who came to dinner │ wore a red hat (3, 2 intonations in subject)
The man who came to dinner │ wore │ a red hat (or wore a red │ hat) (3,
intonations in predicate)

Sentence Stress – English stresses content words (nouns, significant verbs,
whatever is important) rather than function words (and, is, prepositions).
Example: The book is on the table.
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