How to teach good pronunciation?

Presented by ELT Supervisor

(Mrs. Abeer Noor)

ELT senior supervisor

(Mrs. Wafa Al Jeraiwi)

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Opener

• She sells sea shells by the sea shore .

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• Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

• Objectives:
• 1-Define the main features of good pronunciation .
• 2-Improve the implementation of teaching English sound system in all stages.
• 3-Analyze common pronunciation mistakes that are being done by Arab speakers of English.
• 4- Suggest teaching strategies and tips to reach the standard English pronunciation .

Pronunciation and linguistic competence.

Task 1

Why is teaching good pronunciation important?

1. Enhanced Communication Skills: Good English pronunciation helps in improving communication skills by making the speaker easily understandable to others.

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2. Improved Comprehension:

Clear pronunciation enhances listening skills and helps in better understanding of spoken English.

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3. Confidence Building:

Having good pronunciation boosts the speaker's confidence in expressing themselves in English.

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4. Better Job Prospects:

Good English pronunciation is highly valued in the professional world, leading to improved job opportunities.

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5. Effective Language Learning:

Focusing on pronunciation aids in overall language learning, as it is an essential component of communication.

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6- Better Academic Performance:

Clear pronunciation positively impacts academic performance, especially in language-related subjects.

What’s meant by good English pronunciation?

• It is the English pronunciation which is understandable In international communication .
• It has no errors or mistakes that lead to misunderstanding or communication breakdown.
• Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form spoken British English.

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• Pronunciation
• Sounds in isolation
• Vowel sounds

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• consonants

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• Connected Speech
• stress

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• Rhythm

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• Intonation

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Steps of teaching pronunciation

• 1-Undestanding the difference between the sounds and the letters .(phonemes –graphemes )
• 2-learn single consonants voiced and voiceless.
• 3-Introduce silent letters when necessary.
• 4-Learn ten simple vowels first.
• 5-Adress any ideas related depending on vocabulary

taught.

• 6- Basic prosodic features ( stress –Rhythm and intonation

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Can we depend on written forms to teach pronunciation?

• Examples;

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• Heir -Air-ere-air .
• ( ʃ )
• Shoes –sugar-ambition-Ocean .

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So we should learn IPA�

Task 2

• What is the connection between listening & pronunciation?

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A teaching tip

• Learners should listen as much as they can to authentic language to develop discrimination skills to decode the rapid flow of speech and identify the deleted parts when listening to a native speaker as short and long forms, weak forms and reductions .

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Why do most of us sometimes can not decode the rapid flow of native speaker’s speech?

• In connected speech function words as pronouns as (he , she, we, your ,them ,me )etc
• Articles as (a ,an , the)
• Prepositions as (for ,from ,of , to)
• Auxiliary verbs (will ,be ,do , have)etc
• Are usually unstressed.
• So we think that they eat half of the words.
• He’s always asking questions.

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Why do learners find difficulty �in English pronunciation?

Mistakes with vowel sounds.

Difficulty in recognition and production of vowel sounds

Mistakes with vowel sounds.

Confusion of some pairs

Mistakes with vowel sounds.

Confusion of some pairs

Mistakes with vowel sounds.

Intrusive vowel

How to pronounce vowel sounds correctly.

How to pronounce vowel sounds correctly.

• Mistakes with consonant sounds
• Confusion of some pairs of consonant sounds

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• Consonant clusters

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• Consonant doubling

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• Syllabic consonants

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Why do Arab learners make mistakes in pronouncing consonant sounds ?

• English has 24 consonants ,whereas Arabic has 28.
• So there are some absent consonants in English,
• this leads to imposing some Arabic pronunciation on the sounds of English.
• Articulatory differences between English and Arabic .The sounds (t - d) exist in both ,but they are produced differently . They are alveolar In English , but dental in Arabic .

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• The consonant /r/
• The sound r has its allophone in Arabic but it is produced differently . In Arabic it is a voiced flap consonant, but in English it’s not flap and it’s produced by a single movement of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.

Confusion of some pairs of consonant sounds:

Difficulty to distinguish between voiced and voiceless sounds.

E.g. : /f/ and /v/ as in fast and vast

• /s/ and / θ / as in /sin/ sin and / θin/ thin
• You have to think before you answer the question.
• You have to sink before you answer the question.
• /z/ and/ð/ as in / zu:/ zoo and /ðei / they
• The consonant Ƞ as in : singer, and finger is produced as a single consonant in English but in Arabic it is pronounced /ng/ as two separate phonemes.

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• The affricates /t ʃ/ as in chair ,cheese , and chicken.

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• / ʃ / as in ship ,shop , and sheep.
• Arabs substitute the / t ʃ / with / ʃ / .
• Here is a tongue twister to eliminate the confusion between them :
• Chop shops stock chops.
• She sells sea shells

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Arabic speakers often substitute /p/ with /b/

One of the most common examples is the word :People .

/pin/ pin and /bin/bin

Funny examples – (pray / bray )

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Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Consonants clusters

• Arabic has no sequence of more than two consonants whereas English has as many as four consonants with no vowel between them .
• Examples of clusters
• 1-texts / Arabs pronounce it as: textis
• 2-spring /Arab pronounce it as :sipring
• 3-sprite /Arab pronounce it as : siprite
• So Arabic learners add an intrusive vowel as a cluster breaker.

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Consonant doubling

• Arab learners follow the written form of words so they double the consonant although they are pronounced as single consonant
• Examples:
• Allow /Ә 'l / becomes / 'æ l-l / strong pronunciation of the first vowel
• Affect /Ә'fekt / becomes/ æf-fekt /

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Syllabic consonant

• English makes much use of l ,m, n as syllabic consonants. They can function as a syllable without a vowel. Examples are/'bɒtl/bottle
• /r I ðm/ rhythm and /b˄tn/button

Arabic speakers tend to put an intrusive vowel.

/'r I ðm/ rhythm Arab pronounce it as: /'r I ð I m/

/'b˄tn/ button Arab pronounce it as: /'b˄tɒn/

/'bɒtl/ bottle Arab pronounce it as: /'bɒt I l/

/r I tn /written Arab pronounce it as:/r I ten/

How to pronounce consonant sounds correctly.

• Pronunciation mistakes in connected speech
• Stress
• Word stress

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• Sentence stress

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• intonation

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• Stress is the degree of force with which a sound or syllable is uttered.
• Misplacement of word stress is a fatal mistake done by Arabs as it changes the meaning as well as the grammatical function e.g.:
• 'insult (noun) whereas in'sult (verb)
• 'present (noun) whereas pre'sent (verb)
• 'record (noun) whereas re'cord. (verb)

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A video about word stress

Sentence stress

• However this is not the case for connected speech. In sentence stress ,the general rule is that, the stress of the words in sequence depends on their importance.
• The more important a word is, the stronger is its stress.
• Arabs tend to stress every word regardless of its importance.
• 'I’ll 'go 'to 'school ‘at ‘seven ‘with ‘my ‘dad .

• Sentence stress explanation
• Eg:
• ' I never gave you that book.
• Meaning “I didn’t ,but somebody else might have.”
• I 'never gave you that book.
• Meaning that “At no time whatsoever.”
• I never 'gave you that book.
• Meaning that “ I might have lent it to you.”
• I never gave 'you that book.
• Meaning “I might have given it to somebody else.”

General tips to improve your teaching pronunciation

• Make analogies from the known to the unknown (coat –load –boat )
• (direction –reflection –distortion )
• Teach unfamiliar sound symbols as
• (jacket –junior-treasure –pleasure ) explicitly
• Prepare common letter combinations and show students the normal way to pronounce them I: (peak –eat –treat).
• gh (cough rough –tough) but don’t over use as we don’t have a fixed correlation.

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• Make good use of the linguistic labs.
• Dictionaries with audio recordings if you use a computer dictionary choose one that gives you both phonetic transcriptions and audio recordings.
• Listen as much a you can . You may even record yourself and compare the recording of your voice to the original one.

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• LISTEN TO NEW VOCABULARY BEFOR PRENTING THEM TO YOUR STUDENTS IN THE CLASS.

Teaching tips

• Teach basic spelling rules ;
• E.g. Adding solid e at the end of the word will change its pronunciation e.g. cap /cape –hop/hope (a usual fatal mistake ) 48 spelling rules .
• Teach phonograms and word families;
• ( They are words that share spelling and sound patterns ).
• (ball-tall-fall-mall)—(mind –kind-find)(lake-make take –fake )

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• Change the habits that come from your native language. Straight to the point – try to become independent of your native language.
• You won't achieve good pronunciation without practice. (continuous and persistent )
• Practising the technique of (minimal pairs).It consists of two words identical in their pronunciation except for one phoneme as in (pin-bin ) (pat-bat) (disk –desk)
• Practising the technique of associating the sound with its common graphic representations

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Other useful Activities for teaching good pronunciation

Integrating Pronunciation into Everyday Classroom

• Activities:

• Warm-up Activities:

Engage students in pronunciation practice at the start of each class to set the tone for the lesson.

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2. Reading aloud :

Encourage students to read aloud in pairs or small groups, focusing on correct pronunciation and intonation.

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���Activities:

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3. Role Play Incorporate role play activities where students have to use correct pronunciation in realistic scenarios.

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Integrating Pronunciation into Everyday Classroom

Integrating Pronunciation into Everyday Classroom

• Activities:

4. Dictation:

Use dictation exercises to challenge students' listening skills and reinforce correct pronunciation.

5. Tongue Twisters:

Have students practice tongue twisters to improve their pronunciation of specific sounds or difficult word combinations.

Activities:

6. Pronunciation Apps:

Recommend pronunciation apps or online resources for students to practice pronunciation outside of class.

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(ELSA - Shadowing technique )

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Integrating Pronunciation into Everyday Classroom

MAN IN THE MIRROR

• I’m starting with the man in the mirror.
• I’m asking him to change his ways
• & No message could’ve been any clearer.
• If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at your self & then make a change..

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