Teaching Pronunciation

CHAPTER 4

Teaching Pronunciation

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

1. What is more important: teaching articulation (sounds of English) or intonation?

2. Do you think any learner can learn to pronounce English clearly and comprehensibly?

3. Which do you think should be a goal of teaching pronunciation: perfect pronunciation or intelligibility?

4. What kind of learners will always have a “foreign accent”?

5. Do you think age is an important factor which affects learning pronunciation?

CHAPTER OUTLINE

· The Importance of Pronunciation in Language Learning

· Teaching Pronunciation: Then and Now

· Factors Affecting Pronunciation Learning

· The Content of Teaching Pronunciation

· How to Teach Pronunciation

CHAPTER GOALS

After completing this chapter you will be able to:

1. explain the importance of pronunciation in language learning

2. explain how pronunciation was taught in the past and how it is supposed to be taught now

3. name and describe five factors that affect pronunciation learning

4. explain the content of teaching pronunciation

5. give examples of techniques that can be used for developing students’ ability to discriminate sounds, stresses, and intonation

6. give examples of recognition and reproduction exercises

KEY WORDS

pronunciation; accent; intelligibility; top-down approach; exposure; innate phonetic ability; recognition and reproduction exercises

· The Importance of Pronunciation in Language Learning

When we teach English we need to be sure that our students can be understood when they speak. They need to be able to say what they want to say. This means that their pronunciation should be at least adequate for that purpose.

One issue that confronts us in the teaching of pronunciation is that of accent. In other words, how important is it for our students to sound like native speakers of the language? Should they have perfect British accents – or sound like Texans or residents of New Zealand, for example?

Some teachers seem to think that students should aim for this ideal. But we should bear in mind that it may be an unrealistic and inappropriate goal. Much more important, perhaps, is the goal of intelligibility. In other words our aim should be to make sure that students can always be understood. They will need good pronunciation for this, though they may not need to have perfect accents.

· Teaching Pronunciation: Then and Now

Views on teaching pronunciation have changed dramatically. In the past pronunciation classes consisted of imitation drills, memorization of patterns, and explanations of phonetics. The current approach to pronunciation starkly contrasts with the early approaches. In the past teachers attempted to build a learner’s articulatory competence from the bottom up. Nowadays a top-down approach is taken in which the most relevant features of pronunciation – stress, rhythm, and intonation – are given high priority. Instead of teaching only the role of articulation within words, we teach its role in a whole stream of discourse. In other words, now we understand that the sounds of language are less crucial for understanding than the way they are organized. The rhythm and intonation of English are 2 major organizing structures that native speakers rely on to process speech. So, because of their major roles in communication, rhythm and intonation merit greater priority in the teaching program than attention to individual sounds.

· Factors Affecting Pronunciation Learning

We will look at five factors that affect pronunciation and we will try to see how we can deal with each of them.

Ø Native Language

Most English diphthongs are strange to Ukrainian-speaking pupils because they do not appear in their native language. Pupils are tempted to substitute for them sounds from their own language. Very often Ukrainian and Russian people speaking English use wrong intonation because of the interference of the Mother Tongue. That can lead to misunderstanding and impoliteness. For example “Will you wait for me↓ here?” is very impolite because of a wrong tone-pattern.

Ø Age

Generally speaking, children under the age of puberty stand an excellent chance of “sounding like a native” if they have continued exposure in authentic contexts. Beyond the age of puberty, there is no particular advantage attributed to age. A 50-year-old can be as successful as an 18-year-old if all other factors are equal. So, youth has no special advantage!

Ø Exposure

It is difficult to define exposure. One can actually live in a foreign country for some time but not take advantage of being “with the people”. Research supports the notion that the quality and intensity of exposure is more important than the mere length of time.

Ø Innate phonetic ability

As a teacher you should bear in mind that pronunciation may be naturally difficult for some students. But they should not despair: with some effort and concentration, they can improve their competence.

Ø Motivation and concern for good pronunciation

Some students are not particularly concerned about their pronunciation while others are. The extent to which their intrinsic motivation propels them toward improvement will be the strongest influence of all five of the factors in this list. Teacher can help students to develop that motivation and concern by showing, among other things, how clarity of speech is significant in shaping their self-image.

Research suggests that any learner who really wants to can learn to pronounce English clearly and comprehensibly.

· The Content of Teaching Pronunciation

Students study English literary pronunciation which constitutes received pronunciation. This is the language of radio, TV, theatres, universities and schools.

Proceeding from the aims and objectives the foreign language syllabus sets out, students must assimilate the following 3 areas: sounds, stress and intonation.

o Students should be able to articulate sounds both separately and in different contexts.

o Students are supposed to know which syllables of words are stressed. They should also know how to use stress to change the meaning of phrases, sentences and questions.

o Closely connected with stress is intonation. Intonation means the pitch you use and the music you use to change that pitch. Students should be able to recognize what meaning the intonation has. They should also know how to change the meaning of what they say through using intonation in different ways.

· How to Teach Pronunciation

In teaching pronunciation there are 2 problems:

o to determine the cases where conscious manipulation of the speech organs is required, and the cases where simple imitation can or must be used.

o to decide on types of exercises and the techniques of using them.

Teaching English pronunciation should be based on Principles described in the Chapter “Teaching by Principles”. This means: students must become conscious of the differences between English sounds stress and intonation and those of the native language.

Exercises used for developing pronunciation skills may be of 2 groups: recognition exercises and reproduction exercises.

Recognition Exercises

They are designed for developing students’ ability to discriminate sounds, stress and intonation.

The following techniques can be recommended:

o The teacher pronounces the sentence: She is good at mathematics and asks students to say which words are stressed. If they say: sister, good, mathematics, they hear the stressed words

o The teacher pronounces English phrases with a rising or falling tone and asks pupils to raise their hands when they hear a rising tone. If pupils raise their hands in the right place then it shows they can hear fall and rise in the voice

o The teacher explains the new sound [ ŋ ]. Then the teacher pronounces a number of words and asks students to raise their hands when they hear the sound

Reproduction Exercises

They are designed for developing pupils’ pronunciation habits, i.e. their ability to articulate English sounds correctly and to combine sounds into words, phrases and sentences easily enough to be able to speak and to comprehend while listening.

The following techniques can be recommended. Record the following conversation and play it for students. Ask students to guess who the participants are and what the setting is:

He: Ready? ↑

She: No. ↓

He: Why? ↓

She: Problems. ↓

He: Problems? ↑

She: Yes. ↓

He: What? ↓

She: Babysitter. ↓

After the students have figured out what is going on, the teacher plays the conversation again. This time the teacher puts the dialogue on the board and draws arrows next to each utterance. Then the students pronounce each word with the teacher. The teacher checks the rise or fall in pitch.

The material used for reproduction exercises or drills should be connected with the topic or unit of lesson pupils study. For example, to teach students the correct pronunciation of [ w ] the rhyme can be used: “Why do cry Willy? Why? Why, Willy, why?”

If students are taught how to pronounce [ d ] they following proverb can used: A frien d in nee d is a frien d in d ee d.

The teacher may take poems, some useful expressions, short sentences, rhymes, geographical and proper names, international words as materials for pronunciation drills.

Pronunciation is a skill that should be developed and perfected throughout the whole course of learning the language. That is why the teacher should use pronunciation drills during every lesson, irrespective of the stage of instruction.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04