Reading

Teaching Pronunciation

           Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. 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. 'What are you going to do?' becomes 'Whaddaya gonna do?' English pronunciation involves too many complexities for learners to strive for a complete elimination of accent, but improving pronunciation will boost self esteem, facilitate communication, and possibly lead to a better job or a least more respect in the workplace. Effective communication is of greatest importance, so choose first to work on problems that significantly hinder communication and let the rest go. Remember that your students also need to learn strategies for dealing with misunderstandings, since native pronunciation is for most an unrealistic goal.

How to Teach Pronunciation to ESL Learners

           Pronunciation often gets ignored over grammar and vocabulary in ESL programs. However, it is just as important because with bad or garbled pronunciation, the spoken message gets lost. “I think” becomes “I sink,” to give a common example. With ESL learners across the world, each country and culture has its own verbal albatross. Here is how can you can begin to use pronunciation for your students’ needs.

Instructions

            1.Get to understand why English words can be so problematic for non-native speakers of English to pronounce. Understanding this difficulty from your students' point of view will better equip you to help them overcome it.

           2 .Obtain phonetic charts that have symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). These charts are available from teaching supply companies and books such as those in the English File series. Hang this up in your class, and familiarize your students with the pronunciation symbols. You can use these charts to teach pronunciation by helping your students understand the sounds that they get wrong, as well as the correct sounds for a given word or similar words.

           3 .Keep your lessons as informal as possible. Students might initially be shy about pronunciation. By using fun, silly activities, it creates a more relaxed, effective atmosphere than strict practice. Tongue twisters are one such fun activity. See the Resources section for a link.

          4 .Use syllable races as an exercise to teach pronunciation. Get a "Snakes and Ladders" board game, and then prepare flash cards that each have a one-syllable, two- or three-syllable word written on it. Instead of throwing a dice, each player will draw a card and if she pronounces the word correctly, she gets to move as many spaces on the board as there are syllables in the word on the flash card. The winner is the player who gets to the end first.

         5 .Get familiar with the different elements of the spoken word--word stress, minimal pairs, pronunciation, intonation and sentence stress--so that you will be able to explain them and be able to create your own lessons geared towards what your students find difficult.

            6 .Use a feather to demonstrate the difference between aspirated and un-aspirated sounds, by holding it right in front of your lips as you say the word.

            7 .Help your students differentiate between minimal pairs by reading phrases for them to draw. For example, have them draw sketches that depict: "A ship’s on the sea" and "A sheep’s on the shore."

How to Pronounce -ed in English

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed.              For example:

base verb (v1)	past simple (v2)	past participle (v3)
work	worked	worked

In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example:

• I like painted furniture.

The question is: How do we pronounce the -ed?

The answer is: In 3 ways - / Id/ or / t/ or / d/

If the base verb ends in one of thesesounds:		example base verb*:	example with -ed:	pronounce the -ed:	extra syllable?
unvoiced	/t/	want	wanted	/ Id/	yes
voiced	/d/	end	ended
unvoiced	/p/	hope	hoped	/ t/	no
	/f/	laugh	laughed
	/s/	fax	faxed
	/S/	wash	washed
	/tS/	watch	watched
	/k/	like	liked
voiced	all other sounds, for example...	play	played	/ d/
		allow	allowed
		beg	begged

* note that it is the sound that is important, not the letter or spelling. For example, "fax" ends in the letter "x" but the sound /s/; "like" ends in the letter "e" but the sound /k/.

 Exceptions

The following -ed words used as adjectives are pronounced with /Id/:

aged blessed crooked

dogged learned naked

ragged wicked wretched

So we say:

• an aged man /Id/
• a blessed nuisance /Id/
• a dogged persistance /Id/
• a learned professor - the professor, who was truly learned /Id/
• a wretched beggar - the beggar was wretched /Id/

But when used as real verbs (past simple and past participle), the normal rules apply and we say:

• he aged quickly /d/
• he blessed me /t/
• they dogged him /d/
• he has learned well /d/ or /t/

Summarize

                     Teaching phonics skills is a skill that is hard enough to pronounce, because children rarely Thailand most technically correct pronunciation. Therefore, teachers need to focus on each student and must be carefully taught. Teachers must teach students to practice pronunciation, vocabulary regularly