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MA Teaching Pronunciation
MA Teaching Pronunciation
Aspiration
Aspiration refers to a puff of air when a
sound is produced.
Many languages have far fewer aspirated
sounds than English, and students may have
trouble hearing the aspiration.
The English /p/, /t/, /k/, and /ch/ are some of
the more commonly aspirated sounds.
To illustrate aspiration:
have your students hold up a piece of facial
tissue a few inches away from their mouths
and
push it with a puff of air
while pronouncing a word containing the
target sound.
Mouth Position
Draw simple diagrams of tongue and lip
positions.
Make sure all students can clearly see your
mouth while you model sounds.
Have students use a mirror to see their
mouth, lips, and tongue while they imitate
you.
Intonation
Word or sentence intonation can be
mimicked with a kazoo (mouth organ), or
alternatively by humming.
This will take the students' attention off of
the meaning of a word or sentence and help
them focus on the intonation.
Linking
We pronounce phrases and even whole
sentences as one smooth sound instead
of a series of separate words.
'Will Amy go away,' is rendered
'Willaymeegowaway.'
To help learners link words, try starting at
the end of a sentence and have them
repeat a phrase, adding more of the
sentence as they can master it.
Vowel Length
You can demonstrate varying vowel
lengths within a word by stretching rubber
bands on the longer vowels and letting
them contract on shorter ones.
Then let the students try it.
For example,
the word 'fifteen' would have the rubber
band stretched for the 'ee' vowel, but the
word 'fifty' would not have the band
stretched because both of its vowels are
spoken quickly.
Syllables
Have students count syllables in a word.
Illustrate syllable stress by clapping softly
and loudly.
For example,
the word 'beautiful' would be loud-softsoft.
Practice with short lists of words with the
same syllabic stress pattern ('beautiful,'
'telephone,' 'Florida') and
then see if your learners can list other
words with that pattern.
Specific Sounds
Minimal pairs, or words such as 'bit/bat'
that differ by only one sound, are useful for
helping students distinguish similar
sounds.
Tongue twisters are useful for practicing
specific target sounds.
Techniques
Exercise should be simple, accessible,
fun and combine reception and
production.
Some students do feel embarassed to pull
ridiculuous faces when practising vowel
sounds
but this soon passes and students enjoy the
pronunciation work.
Where possible, exercises should be
communicative.
Exercise
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.
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.
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.
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 didnt ", "Say it
again" and so on and is usually very lively.
The teacher is, of course, the final arbiter of
what was really said.