Unit 6 Teaching Pronunciation
I. The importance of teaching pronunciation
Correct pronunciation is needed for a speaker to communicate. If our
pronunciation is incorrect, we will not be understood. The result will be that Chinese
people will think you are speaking in a foreign language and English people will think
you are speaking Chinese.
It is more important for us language teachers to have a good pronunciation. If we
have not a good pronunciation, who can we enable our students to pronounce
correctly?
e.g. I need some medicine for my cough.(cough[kof],cow[kau])
He is not a boy who is afraid of hardship and death. (with or without a pause
before "who" is quite different.)
As a means of communication by word of mouth, language is used in oral speech
and in reading aloud. Therefore, in order to make oneself easily understood while
expressing one's own or other people's thoughts in any language, one must be able to
pronounce words and sentences in that language quite correctly.
1. The role of pronunciation
In the teaching of English as a foreign language, discussions on pronunciation
are not so much around how to teach pronunciation as around the value of teaching
pronunciation. There are people who claim that students do not need to learn
pronunciation because pronunciation will take care of itself as the students develop
overall language ability, However, there are people who assert that failure in
pronunciation is a great hindrance in language learning.
Considering our English learning context, generally speaking, beginning Chinese
learners of English need a certain degree of focus on pronunciation. However, great
care should be taken over the distinction between pronunciation and phonetics. 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
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phonetic transcripts of words, especially young students, because phonetic transcripts
are more abstract and less meaningful.
2. What should be taught to the beginners, pronunciation or phonetic?
Pronunciation is more important than phonetic. Stress and intonation are as
important as the sounds themselves and should be taught from the very beginning.
Whether pronunciation needs special attention or focus in language teaching
depends on many factors especially learner factors.
Learners whose native language has similar sounds to English are less likely to
have problems with pronunciation
Learners who have more exposure to English need less focus on pronunciation
Adult learners need more focus on pronunciation because they are more likely to
substitute English sounds with sounds from their native language.
Beginning Chinese learners of English should focus on pronunciation and their
ability to identify and produce English sounds themselves, because phonetic
transcripts are more abstract and less meaningful.
3. When should we teach phonetic?
Phonetic rules regarding what sounds a letter or a cluster of letters should be
pronounced are helpful for students to develop the ability to cope with English
pronunciation and they should be introduced at a suitable stage. Beginners of English,
specialty young learners, should be avoided to teach phonetic.
II. The goal of teaching pronunciation
It is true that language students’ pronunciation should be as good as possible. But
should we require the students to acquire native-like pronunciation? The question is
probably not whether we should or should not require the students to acquire
native-like pronunciation. The question is whether the students themselves can
achieve that goal at all. Generally speaking, learners of English as a foreign language
cannot acquire native-like pronunciation, except those who start learning English at a
very young age.
1. What’s considered as a good pronunciation?
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A good pronunciation means:
1) to pronounce correctly all the speech sounds of the language and all the
combinations in their proper order not only isolated words, but also in sentences;
2) to pronounce sentences fluently at the speed required by the situation with
correct stresses, linking of sounds, rhythm, pauses and intonation.
As a matter of fact, learners of English as a foreign language cannot acquire
native-like pronunciation. Here are some of the reasons:
a. Critical period hypothesis states that if humans do not learn a foreign
language before a certain age, then due to changes such as maturation of the brain, it
becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like a native speaker.
b. The amount of exposure to English is another factor that determines if the
students can acquire native-like English pronunciation.
c. Individual ability. Due to biological and physiological difference, some
students are more sensitive to and better at imitating sounds than others.
2.The realistic goal of teaching Pronunciation.
As we know the ideal goal of teaching pronunciation is to acquire native-like
pronunciation, however, it’s not easy to acquire such pronunciation. However,
admitting the difficulty in acquiring native-like pronunciation does not mean that
teachers should not encourage students to improve their pronunciation as much as
possible.
If we should not require native-like pronunciation, then what should be our
realistic goals? Our realistic goals of teaching pronunciation should be
Consistency: (连贯性)The pronunciation should be smooth and natural.
Intelligibility:(可理解性) The pronunciation should be understandable to the
listeners.
Communicative efficiency(交际的有效性): The pronunciation should help to
convey the meaning that is intended by the speaker.
III. Aspects of pronunciation
When talking about pronunciation, many people automatically think of sounds
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and phonetic symbols and rules.Actually pronunciation is an umbrella term covering
many aspects besides sounds and phonetic symbols, such as stress, intonation, and
rhythm. Of course, these aspects are not isolated from each other. Rather, they are
interrelated. For example, the word stress influences how the letters are pronounced.
And the sentence stress again will make it necessary to pronounce words differently
from when they are read individually. Similarly, intonation and rhythm also cause
variation in the sounds of words.
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IV. Practising sounds
1. Focusing on a sound
When teaching pronunciation, we need to focus on individual sounds, especially
those sounds that are difficult to learn. For example, most Chinese students find it
difficult to learn the English sound [Ø] and [Ò].
Task 4:
Imagine that you are focusing on a sound which your students are having
difficulty with. In what order would you teach and practice the sound?
Suggested steps and order for teach sounds:
Say the sound alone.
Get students to repeat the sound in chorus.
● Get individual students to repeat the sound.
● Explain how to make the sound.
● Say the sound in a word.
● Contrast it with other sounds.
● Say the sound in meaningful contexts.
Perception practice: Perception practice is aimed at developing the students’
ability to identify and distinguish between different sounds. Correct perception of
sounds is vital for listening comprehension. Below are some examples of perception
practice of English sounds.
Using minimal pairs.
Which order?
Same or different?
Odd man out.
Completion.
Production practice: Production practice is aimed at developing students’
ability to produce sounds. Producing distinct and understandable sounds is very
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important for effective communication. Production practice of pronunciation varies
from mechanical imitation to production in meaningful context. (See P54 for details)
Fill in the blanks.
Make up sentences.
Use meaningful context.
Use pictures.
Use tongue twisters.
4. The presentation of teaching pronunciation.
1). To introduce the sound.
The first step in actual classroom instruction is to introduce the sound, to focus
the students' attention on the teaching point.
e.g. We can teach the words eat, he, she, seat, see, etc. with the help of learning
A,B,C,D,E,
2). Imitation, description and comparison and contrast.
The sound system is known to be learned best through imitation of the sound
patterns, description of phonological systems and comparison and contrast of different
sounds.
imitation
Students learn a new sound by listening to the teacher’s modeling, following the
teacher's model and trying to produce the sound in the way the teacher do. Since most
of the teachers are not native speaker of English, tapes or records are very helpful for
the students.
description
For Chinese junior high students, however, mere imitation is not enough,
because students at this stage have already passed their best age for imitation and they
have also acquired some knowledge of the Chinese sound system and considerable
ability to learn abstractly, besides, some consonants are so weak that it is very
difficult for them to imitate.
e.g. [ ] [ ] [dz] [ ] [d ] [ ]
Comparison and contrast
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Comparison and contrast have proved to be also very effective in teaching the
sound system. Teachers should contrast the sound being taught with the nearby
English sounds. e.g.
[ ]--[e] [u]--[u:] [i]--[i:]
[p]--[b] [f]--[v] [ ]--[ ] [l]--[n]--[r]
3). Familiarization
After the students can pronounce a certain sound correctly, the teacher should
provide words that contain the sound. e.g.
[i]: it ,rid. live, live, bill, fill, fist
[i:]:eat, read, leave, bean, feel, feast
4). Production
At this stage, the students are now learning to pronounce sounds through
imitation.
Example with the words learned should be given and pronounced.
e.g. Read it, please. Please eat it.
Leave the beans here. Please sit in this seat.
V. Practicing stress and intonation
1. Practicing stress.
There are two kinds of stress that are important in achieving good pronunciation
— word-level stress; phrase-level stress.
Three ways of showing the stress pattern:
a. Use gestures. Clapping hands or using arm movements
b. Use the voice. raise the voice to indicate stress.
c. Use the blackboard. Underlining them or writing them with coloured chalks
In this point, we would introduce the simplest way, only with gestures. The
teacher may do any of the followings to indicate the stress patterns.
1)Thump the air when saying the stressed syllable.
"Good 'morning!"
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2)Make a downward stroke(划)of the hand-marking the "beat" like orchestra
['o:kistr ] conductor. e.g
Would you like to be a good student?
Of 'course I would.
3) Punch the palm of his other hand
4) clap his hands. e.g. im'portant
5) bang his hand against something, such as desk or the blackboard.
2. Practicing intonation
The most successful technique for teaching intonation is imitation or mimicry.
However, the use of gestures can reinforce this mimicry, that is, when the utterance
requires a falling intonation, better results are sometimes achieved if the teacher raise
a hand and lists it falls in imitation of the change in voice pitch.
Linear(划线) intonation marking is a memorial device in itself. Since it shows
visually when a rise or fall of the voice is required.
VI. Some principles of teaching pronunciation.
1.Recognition practice should precede(先于) production practice.
2.The sound to be heard and spoken should be clearly highlighted(突出) in short
utterances.
3.Students should be given the opportunity to hear the same things said by more
than one voice as the model.
4.The English sound can be demonstrated in contrast with other English sounds
or else in contrast with sounds from native language.
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