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Unit Six
Teaching Pronunciation
I. The Role of Pronunciation
There exist two points of view:
Some people claim that students do not need to
learn pronunciation because pronunciation will
take care of itself as the students develop overall
language ability.
Some people think that failure in pronunciation
is a great obstacle in language learning.
The teaching of pronunciation should
focus on the students’ ability to identify
and produce English sounds themselves.
Phonetic rules are helpful for students to
develop the ability to cope with English
pronunciation and they should be
introduced at a suitable stage.
Stress and intonation are as important as the
sounds themselves and should be taught from
the very beginning, for different intonation
can create different meanings.
II. The goal of teaching pronunciation
It is true that language students’ pronunciation
should be as good as possible. The learners of
English as a foreign language cannot achieve
native-like pronunciation, except those who start
learning English at a very young age.
The Critical Period Hypothesis(关键期假说）:
If human don’t 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.
This is true for acquiring native-like
pronunciation, but there is less evidence that it is
true for acquiring the grammar or the
vocabulary of a foreign language. Everyone
agrees that all people who learn a foreign
language after puberty will always have an
accent. It will be easy for the native-speaker to
identify that the person is not a native-speaker of
that language.
The amount of exposure to English is
another factor that determines if the
students can acquire native-like English
pronunciation.
And due to the biological and physiological
differences, individual students have different
phonetic ability. It is not realistic for the
majority of students to have a native-like
English pronunciation.
Our realistic goals of teaching pronunciation :
Consistency: The pronunciation should be smooth
and natural.
Intelligibility: The pronunciation should be
understandable to the listeners.
Communicative
efficiency: The pronunciation should help to
convey the meaning that is intended
by the speaker.
When trying to achieve consistency in pronunciation,
students should not sacrifice intelligibility.
Unintelligible speech is useless and may cause
unpleasant feelings for the both speaker and the
audience. But consistency and intelligibility are not
enough in real communication. Students should pay
attention to intonation. Different intonation can
convey different meaning.
III. Aspects of Pronunciation
pronunciation
Sounds stress
phonetic
Symbols
intonation rhythm liaison linkage
The pronunciation of a word or syllable with more
force than the surrounding words or syllables.
Syllables can be stressed or unstressed. A listener
hears a stressed syllable or word as being louder / of
longer duration / or produced with higher pitch then
the surrounding word or syllables. A syllable may be
stressed because:
( 1 ) the accent is on that syllable.
( 2 ) the speaker wants to emphasize that syllable.
Intonation: When speaking people general raise or
lower the pitch of the voice, forming pitch pattern.
They also give some syllables in their utterances a
greater degree of loudness and change their speech
rhythm. These phenomena are called intonation.
Intonation has definite patterns which can be
analyze according to their structure and functions.
Intonation patterns may have:
1) It has grammatical functions, they can show
that an utterance is a question and not a statement.
( 2 ) give additional information to that given by
the words of an utterance.
I GOT the job. ( it was doubtful whether I could.)
( 3 ) indicate the speaker’s attitude to the matter
discussed or to the listener.
But I TOLD you.
Rhythm: Rhythm in speech is created by the
contracting and relaxing of chest muscle ( pulses).
This causes changes air pressure.
Students should pay attention to stress and
intonation. Research has showed that when a
native speaker mishear something, it is because
the foreigner has put the stress on the wrong
place, but because she/ he has mispronounced the
sounds of the words.
Language learning needs of practice and it is true
with pronunciation. There are two kinds of
practices:
Practice is necessary for the development of
many skills, for example, typing.
Meaningful practice is more desirable.
Everything can be learned more effectively if it is
meaningful.
IV. Practising sounds
1) Focusing on a sound
When teaching pronunciation, we need to focus on
individual sounds, especially those difficult to
learn. The following are some common approaches
to the teaching of pronunciation for the Chinese
teachers:
There are two different patterns of pulses:
(1) a more regular type of contraction with
regular rises in air pressure ( chest pulses)
(2) less frequent but stronger contractions with
more sudden rises in air pressure ( stress pulses )
two systems operate together in any one language is
said to cause different types of speech rhythm.
Explain how to make the sound: we suggest this
can be done at later stage because if the students
can produce the sound correctly after the teachers’
modeling, it is not necessary to explain HOW.
When students have difficulty producing the
sound, explanations will do.
Contrast with other sounds: This can also be
done at later stage when the students have
obtained a certain degree of mastery of the sound.
Write words on the board: it is unnecessary
because words written on the board will distract
students’ attention from the teacher’s modeling.
And they will try to produce the sounds of the
words they see and neglect what the teacher says.
2) 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. We
have the following methods to practise.
(1) Using minimal pairs: Minimal pairs are two
words which have only one different sounds. The
teacher reads either word of each pair and asks the
students to tell which one is read.
which order: The teacher reads each group of words
in a different order and the students mark the words
with 1, 2, 3, to indicate the order in which the words
are read. The teacher can read the words several
times in different order.
( 3 ). Same or different: The teacher reads pairs of
words and ask the students to tell if the air of words
are the same or different. The words should not be
written out.
4 ) Odd man out: The teacher reads a group of words a
time and the students identify the different word or
sound. The words are not written out.
5 ) Completion: the teacher reads a series of
words which have only one different sound. The
students complete the words they hear.
Production practice:
Production practice is aimed at developing students’
ability to produce sounds. Producing distinct and
understandable sounds is very important for
effective Communication. Production practice of
pronunciation varies from mechanical imitation to
production in meaningful context. A few types of
activities are:
Listen and repeat: The students repeat what the
teacher says. This activity can be used to practise
individual sounds, individual words, groups of
words and sentences.
Fill in the blanks: The students fill in blanks in
sentences with words which contain certain
sounds.
Make up sentences: The students are given a
group of words containing the same sound or
similar sounds. They should make up sentences
using as many of the given words as possible.
The sentences do not have to realistically
meaningful and logical. Humorous sentences are
preferred.
Using meaningful context: The sounds to focus
on are embedded in a meaningful context and
students perform meaning tasks while “ keeping
an eye on” the sounds.
Using pictures: The students produce meaningful
language based on the pictures. The students
perform meaningful tasks while keep an eye on
particular sounds.
Use tongue twisters: tongue twisters are often
used in pronunciation practice because they fun
and motivating. Also the relaxing atmosphere
helps students to overcome inhibition. Students
should be given time to practise on their own for
a few minutes before they are asked to perform
in front of the class.
Practising stress and intonation
There are two kinds of stress that are important in
achieving good pronunciation.
word-level stress: it is very important to stress the
proper syllable in multi-syllabic words. If the wrong
syllable is stressed, listeners will not understand
what word is being pronounced. So the best strategy
is to emphasize the importance of learning the stress
as part of learning a word.
phrase-level stress: each phrase has one syllable
which receives greater or more prominent stress
than the others. Some phrases have only one
stressed syllable, while others may have 5—6
stressed syllables. And the best way is to make the
students be aware of where to stress the word or
phrase. Teachers can use the following ways to
show the stress pattern of words, phrases and
sentences.
( a ) Use gestures. The teacher can indicate the
stress by clapping hands or using arm movements
as if conducting music.
( b ) Use the voice. The teacher can raise the voice
to indicate stress. This can be done with some
exaggeration sometimes.
( c ) Use the blackboard. The teacher can
highlight the stresses by underlining them or
writing them with coloured chalks or in different
size.
Practicing intonation
Intonation can greatly affect the intention of the
speaker’s message. Intonation can be used to
express meanings such as surprise,
complaint,sarcasm, friendliness, threat, etc. this
is one of the last areas of language that foreign
language learners can master and is also difficult
to teach.
Below are some further suggestions on teaching
pronunciation:
Use individual, pair, group and whole class practice
formats to create a pleasant, relaxed and dynamic
classroom.
Use hands and arms to conduct choral pronunciation
practice.
Move around the classroom while doing choral practice
Vary the criteria of good in pronunciation practice
to give students confidence.
It is helpful articulation practice more than once.
Bring variety to the classroom.
The main criteria of good pronunciation are
consistency, intelligibility , and communicative
efficiency.
Do not rely on explanations. Make full use of
demonstration.
Try to use visual aids.