The hows and whys of teaching pronunciation teaching. Teaching efl pronunciation how to teach efl pronunciation. Pdf joanne kenworthy teaching english pronunciation book. Pronunciation is one of the most difficult areas of teaching esl. Brief teaching pronunciation to adult english language. Nevertheless, correct pronunciation is without doubt a fundamental feature of successful communication in the english. Therefore, in my opinion, teaching adult esl students english pronunciation from the beginning should be treated equally with speaking, listening, reading and writing. Teaching pronunciation to adults tefl teaching tefl tales. Kirsten schaetzel, georgetown law center, washington, dc.
This guide on how to teach pronunciation provides a short overview of the main issues to be addressed at each level, as well as pointing to resources on the site, such as lesson plans and activities, that you can use in class to help your students improve their english pronunciation skills. Games and other activities to help students with word stress. While there are many textbooks and instruction manuals available, as well as books on the theories and methodologies of language teaching there is comparatively little on learning pronunciation. As you know, theres a big gap between grammatical fluency and nativesounding speech and even long before that, in esl levels one and two. And i have observed that when a student learns to be comfortable with english pronunciation, then that student also begins to learn quickly. Instruct the student to separate while saying them out loud the word cutouts according to voicedvoiceless th. An action research study of pronunciation training, language. Oh, the joys of helping students with the strange english phonemes. Activities that help learners recognize syllables and understand their role in pronunciation.
Vanishing dialogue is just one suggested activity in this poster all about teaching pronunciation. It is often the focus of speaking or listening exercises but you can even include pronunciati. Pronunciation instruction in perspective 1 the history and scope of pronunciation teaching 2 what research reveals about pronunciation ii. Im sure we have all come across those moments of, excuse me. Esl english as a second language l2 second language efl english as a foreign language. An action research study of pronunciation training, language learning strategies and. How to teach english pronunciation with pictures wikihow. It is an honor to host this event, and we hope your time at the university of utah is filled with. Pronunciation is one of the most important skills in english language teaching. Teaching pronunciation to adult english language learners. Practical pronunciation worksheets for the esl teacher. Common phonetic problems and students responses, either withdrawal in class, sadness or anger, can vary significantly in different esl teaching locations. Pronunciation of final s and es worksheet pdf final s with.
Many english as a second language esl or english as a foreign language efl teachers can understand their students speech when people in the wider world. English pronunciation can be tricky, especially for esl english as a second language learners. Give the student the bag of word cutouts see word cutout sheet below. If you are a current subscriber and have any questions, please contact us please feel free to share the resourcesremember to acknowledge the source and use the original without any alterations. Pronunciation teaching exercises and ideas for english language. They all have a way to help listeners distinguish between old information and new information and thereby draw the listeners attention to that piece of information that is new, and therefore, more important. It can easily become a minefield, where students who have previously been successful suddenly struggle and feel inadequate. Center for applied linguistics 4646 40th street nw. Ee ling low, national institute of education, nanyang technological university, singapore. I have found that students learn to pronounce english fairly well after a month or so using this approach. Pdf icon syllables worksheets activities that help learners recognize syllables and. Teaching pronunciation is often a neglected or ignored in english language.
Its safe to say, english is peppered with confusing pronunciation. Pronunciation activities practical activities to help students with. In some time periods, teaching pronunciation has been considered extremely important, while at other times it hasnt been given much attention at all. Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. An overview chapter 3 the consonant system chapter 4 the vowel system chapter 5 connected speech, stress, and rhythm chapter 6 prominence and intonation in. Teaching pronunciation offers current and prospective teaching pronunciation offers. Pronunciation exercises need to be repeated and recycled. Learning and understanding english language pronunciation is essential for esl students. If speakers have very bad pronunciation, their speech will not be understandable to the listeners. Some sounds rarely occur in other languages, so clearly explain how students should use their lips and tongues to form unfamiliar sounds. Joanne kenworthy teaching english pronunciation book fi org. Teaching english pronunciation is a challenging task with different objectives at each level. Trends in teaching pronunciation are like a swinging pendulumthe emphasis goes from one extreme to the other. In addition, their own language learning background, teaching experience and work with other teachers influence their approach to pronunciation.
English pronunciation teaching strategies or techniques are available to teachers in the classroom. Start by introducing how to pronounce english vowels and consonants. Teaching pronunciation an expressive skill is the just the other side of teaching listening a receptive skill. Teaching pronunciation 3 melody all languages have some way to highlight the most important piece of information in an utterance. When they do find the time to address pronunciation, the instruction often amounts to the presentation and practice of a. Unfortunately, for students with a mother tongue that bears no resemblance to english, this actually makes comprehension more difficult. This is the way many textbooks advise to teach pronunciation. Pronunciation sometimes known as pronuhnseeeyshuhn is one of the simplest esl topics to explain, at least in theory. In many english language classrooms, teaching pronunciation is granted the least attention. Each worksheet has five activities that encourage discrimination between minimal pairs. To support teachers who are teaching from home, we have made onestopenglish free until the end of june 2020. Pronunciation is a really important part of teaching esl.
Pronunciation worksheets we will meet again pronunciation worksheets. Teach er plas tic the stress can be found in any syllable but it depends on the characteristics of the word, some people rely on experience but not all of us can rely on it and thats why we learn the word stress rules or we succeed with a combination of experience and rules. Top 10 tips for teaching pronunciation in esl classes. Part i pronunciation instruction in perspective chapter 1 the history and scope of pronunciation teaching chapter 2 research on the teaching and acquisition of pronunciation skills part ii the sound system of north american english. We are delighted to welcome you to salt lake city for pronunciation in second language learning and teaching 2017. Teaching english pronunciation is an area of language teaching that many english teachers avoid. Pronunciation exercises sound, stress, intonation hints on pronunciation for foreigners. Celcemurcias teaching pronunciation celce murcia pdf free ebook download techniques and resources in teaching download ebook.
Ultimately, the goal is for your students to speak so they can be understood by native english speakers. This pdf document will help you to know which problems relate to specific first languages. Tims pronunciation workshop shows you how english is really spoken. Teaching pronunciation teachingenglish british council. Its not helpful for students to become too complacent and to believe that their pronunciation. Esl pronunciation activities should be fun and have natural components of excitement for your studentssuch as games, challenges, brainteaser riddles, tongue twisters, interactive tutorials and more. Syllables worksheets activities that help learners recognize syllables and understand their role in pronunciation.
So, esl pronunciation worksheets are only as useful as the activities you provide your students to complete along with the worksheet. If you communicate only through the written word, you will need only the first two of these. Teaching pronunciation to english learners still, while its not practical to set our goal impossibly high, we also cant afford to set it too low. Six readytogo sets of pdf worksheets that help preintermediate learners recognize syllables and understand their role in english pronunciation. Teaching english pronunciation is a tricky thing to do. Word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken english, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in casual speech. Teaching pronunciation to adults march 9, 2017 leave a comment one of the most important things for your students to get right, and one of the primary reasons that tefl nomads exist, is pronunciation. This contention was justified by gilakjani 2011, who conducted a study about the importance of pronunciation in english language teaching and discussed the greenhorns with good english. It is impossible to develop accurate english pronunciation without speaking. Teaching pronunciation involves a variety of challenges.
English pronunciation and speaking help and exercises including international phonetic alphabet ipa guides, lesson plans, and conversational strategies for esl efl classes and teachers. Esl teachers walk a fine line when addressing pronunciation issues of english. As english teaching has moved to language functions and. In one lesson, students will speak and repeat for about 90% of the time.
At a certain point i teach confusing words tree, three in a quiz show kind of approach. Since theyll all involve speaking and listening, theyre naturally engaging and interactive games. Common pitfalls encountered when teaching pronunciation. An overview 3 the consonant system 4 the vowel system 5 stress, rhythm, and connected speech 6 prominence and intonation iii. Teaching good pronunciation skills in english is not the same thing as eradicating a first language influenced accent.
Many teachers begin english pronunciation practice as they introduce vocabulary. Pronunciation worksheets esl worksheets englishclub. English may be one of the most difficult languages in the world to pronounce. To begin with, teachers often find that they do not have enough time in class to give proper attention to this aspect of english instruction. There are lots of useful ideas for you to use in the classroom. When esl teachers defend the poor pronunciation skills of their students, their arguments could either be described as a copout with respect to their inability to teach their students proper pronunciation or they could be regarded as taking a stand.
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