Practice Activities –

SUBJECT PRACTICE ACTIVITIES:

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

GENERAL INFORMATION:

The subject practice activities consist of doing individually five short exercises. The
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Besides, the activities have to be done in this Word document: leave the activities’
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Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject

Evaluation” document. Sending it to the teacher’s e-mail is not permitted.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.

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Name and surname(s): Marina Terrosi

Group: TEFL_February 2018
Date: 27th February 2019

Practice Activities

You can find attached excerpts of two books to teach pronunciation.

 Excerpt 1: Underhill, A. (2005). Learning and Teaching Pronunciation.

Oxford: MacMillan. (pp. 14-24).
 Excerpt 2: Hancock, M & Donna, S. (2014) English Pronunciation in Use.
Cambridge: Cambridge University. (pp. 10-19).

Review the two books and answer the following questions.

1. What seems to be the general approach of the books? Segmental or

suprasegmental? Exposure-based or explanation based? Humanistic or
drill-based? Teacher-centred or student centered? Traditional or unusual?
Use what you learnt in Chapter 9 to justify your answer.

Both texts seem to follow the communicative approach. Both the book by
Underhill and the other one by Hancock & Donna appear to be offering plenty of
activities suitable for intermediate learners of English whose pronunciation
needs to focus on segmental but also on suprasegmental level. Grammar is not
the starting point, pronunciation is given the same importance as the other
language skills, an area of study which has become crucial since having
pronunciation difficulties, no matter how “proficient one can be in other aspects
of English, may result in limited career advancement opportunities and lower
earnings.”1
Certainly, according to Richards (2007), among other ones, nowadays the
communicative language teaching theory and practice draw on a number of
different educational paradigms and traditions. Indeed, in the materials are
present the set of procedural options part of the “Exposure, Exercise,
Explanation” paradigm (Dalton and Seidlhofer, 1994, in FUNIBER) which allows
students to identify and practice sounds but also to understand later on, how
certain aspects must be dealt with to be intelligible when communicating in L2.
Starting from a more segmental approach, the book by Underhill is highly based
on a discovery approach, offering students the opportunity to become more

1
Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills
ESL Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30,
No.1. P. 23.

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autonomous and responsible of their learning process. The idea pursued and
applied to pronunciation teaching is clearly, as Underhill (2011) himself affirmed
the importance to take pronunciation out of the head and put it into the body to
make pronunciation a physical activity, not just a mental activity.
Pronunciation teaching may well pave the way for better comprehension,
boosting communicative competence which is not simply based on linguistic
and grammatical competence, but also on the capacity of being more
intelligible, that is, undoubtedly the most important aspect, among the other
ones, namely comprehensibility and accent: “intelligibility, whether an utterance
is understood by an interlocutor, is the most important of the three.”2
The material by Hancock (2014) does start relying a lot on segmental aspects
but then also including suprasegmental ones like intonation, nuclear stress,
word length and also connected speech. Take for instance the activity 3.2
where there is an example of dialogue working on different levels of
pronunciation including both segmental and suprasegmental realities. As Gilbert
(2011) reminds us, the prosodic features of a language are so peculiar that
when they are not taken into consideration and reproduced by speakers, no
matter what L1 do they own, not respecting the prosody pyramid upon which
English depends, may well result in a lack of comprehension on the side of the
listener. “Every language has its own system to signal where we need to focus
our attention, has its signals to tell the listener that new information is
stressed.”3
The activities proposed by both materials are nice and amusing exposure-
based ones thus keeping pronunciation learning enjoyable, not so difficult to
acquire responding to a key factor which is simplicity (Gilbert, 2011).
In Discovery toolkit a great emphasis is put to the importance of raising
awareness of what is involved physically, in the mere production of sounds.
Totally immersed in their making of sounds, students are at the centre of the
process of learning. There are also students who might feel discouraged by
their own pronunciation and even perceive themselves as foreigners when

2
Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills
ESL Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30,
No.1. P. 23.
3
Gilbert, J. [The New School]. (2011, June 23). Teaching
pronunciation: seven essential concepts.
[https://youtu.be/BPmjGHdK5v8]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmjGHdK5v8

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uttering words, phrases, sentences, speeches. By making them well conscious,

can mean better and more competent students.
Drilling is part of the activities proposed by both materials. It is true that
repetition, especially choral repetition, can help to acquire better ways of
pronouncing but also store the material in long term memory. According to
Gilbert (2011) choral repetition can give a hand, support to learners who then
feel much more confident and stronger.
The student at the centre of his/her learning process, can make use of this
material both in class, in particular of the text designed by Hancock, to study
autonomously or in groups, depending also on the choices made by the teacher
who could decide to use it in class, to assign homework to be carried out in little
groups and so on. Perhaps the students need more explanation, however,
either the practice of the assigned tasks or the production are up to the learners
themselves. Rather in an unusual way, not by following a traditional method at
all, the activity - based approach provided allow students to perform in more
fruitful ways what they learn day by day. Up to them there is also that capacity
of being ready to solve problems related to more difficult sounds, segments,
and other aspects to deal with that all together do contribute to the formation of
a relevant product, the best uttered language as possible with all its well uttered
and highly comprehensible discourses.

2. Does it cover all aspects we have seen in the materials? Articulation,

vowel/consonantal system, phonemic chart, connected speech, stress,
intonation, foreign influence? Etc.? Refer back to the materials if any of
those aspects needs definition.

Both the materials can be used by intermediate students who are more or less
at B1 level. If a well detailed phonemic chart is present in Underhill, the one by
Hancock gives for each sound, the related picture showing how and where
those sounds are produced, and as it has been already said, maybe a more
detailed explanation would be necessary. Connected speech is dealt with by
both materials as well as the other aspects such as stress, intonation. Foreign
influence may be due to the interference of the L1 of the students or even to the
one belonging to the non-native English speaker. Certainly, Underhill gives
plenty of pieces of advice for producing sounds correctly and all the rest.
Anyway, I would not let any of my students without having been trained initially,

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since it is important to remember the physical sensations and thoughts related

to pronunciation until all this has become a physical activity. Materials as such
can be of extreme help and be integrated perfectly in other English courses
where pronunciation is not given the attention it deserves.
Phonetic and phonology are the areas necessarily faced by both materials, in a
very practical way so that students can really understand what they mean, what
they entail indeed.

3. Does any of them consider integrated skills? Do they teach vocabulary, as

well? If they don’t, could you make a brief proposal for them to include
vocabulary?

Both books consider integrated skills and can be perfectly part of English
courses of very different types, from elementary to advanced level, from
courses using a very specific English (English for Specific Purposes), and
others using it as general English.
Maybe, if we think about vocabulary teaching, the words taught should be
recycled many times to make sure that students can reuse it thus
decontextualizing from the tasks given to retrieve it when necessary.
One of the ideas I have come up with is that of using vocabulary in context and
so for specific purposes. To a certain extent, this recalls CLIL as a methodology
where content is conveyed by means of English and so by using the language,
English is taught and learnt without teaching English (Guzman, 2016). “The
basis of learning is memorization. You need that for everything. However, if you
stay at that level in which you are memorizing and not repeating that’s not deep
learning.”4 In saying that, a stronger emphasis is on content rather than on form,
at least during the first phase of learning something you that should also be
enjoyable, or interesting and engaging.

4. Which contexts of use are they intended for? Are there significant
differences among the three of them?
The materials can be used to work on various areas of language, and therefore not
only for ameliorating pronunciation but also to build up more vocabulary and to improve
aspects of grammar.

4
Guzman, R. [TEDx Talks]. (2016, May 26). Teaching English without
teaching English. [https://youtu.be/8pZa6R3rmRQ]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZa6R3rmRQ

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Certainly, the two books are also different in their ways of approaching and levels as
well. On the one hand, Underhill’s book is more prone to the teaching of theories
regarding phonetics, that is more suitable for teachers who can later on use the
material to deliver interesting and engaging, very practical lessons on pronunciation.
The book by Hancock et al. (2014) can be used by teachers and learners who want to
learn how to pronounce sounds better as if they were self- taught students. Segmentals
are the ones non natives should pay more attention on since he /she may deviate “from
native models in precisely those sounds that are considered to be core sounds in
English, and therefore essential to approximate closely because they figure in all native
varieties.”5 That is why a mix of both books is highly recommended. Underhill explains
brilliantly how important is become well self- aware about the physical counterpart of
sounds that requires much more comprehension compared to what usually happens in
school, where pronunciation is just a mental activity and even more, an extra activity to
be carried out only if there is enough time, provided that teachers think it is worth
working on it.

5. Which one would you prefer to use as a teacher? Why? Relate you answer
to Brinton’s variables.
Considering Brinton’s variables, I would rather prefer the book by Hancock et al.
(2014), if I had to teach beginner and intermediate students.
The activities, exercises, all the rhymes used are so engaging and really suitable for
these kinds of students that I could not say no to it. Activities that also lead to writing
production if one wanted to work considering all skills. Also, it would cover all the skills
thus fulfilling what institutions very often requires. The activities are all integrated and
focus is also on grammar.
Anyway, I would also deliver the first lesson on pronunciation by putting into practice
what Underhill teaches and who once said that it is exactly what he does whenever he
meets a new class, no matter how proficient the students he has to work with are. By
putting in circulation the phonemic chart, what seemed to be too mental now acquires a
more practical nature.
The book by Underhill may be more appropriate once students have reached a pretty
good proficiency and need to be more conscious about their pronunciation and the key
role it plays.

5
Jenkins, J. (1999).”Which pronunciation norms and models of Englisas
an International language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2, p. 122.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBIOGRAPHY

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Dalto, C. & Seidlhofer, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Derwing, M. Diepenbroek,L.Foote,J. (2012). How Well do general-Skills ESL

Textbooks Address Pronunciation? TESL Canada Journal, Vol. 30, No.1.

Gilbert, J. [The New School]. (2011, June 23). Teaching pronunciation: seven essential
concepts. [https://youtu.be/BPmjGHdK5v8]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmjGHdK5v8

Guzman, R. [TEDx Talks]. (2016, May 26). Teaching English without teaching English.
[https://youtu.be/8pZa6R3rmRQ]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8pZa6R3rmRQ

Jenkins, J. (1999).”Which pronunciation norms and models of Englisas an International

language?”. In ELT Journal 52/2, p. 119-126.

Richards, J. [www. GPVconz]. (2007, July 22). Communicative language teaching.

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdUB_e8_Zc.