About Pronunciation
1. The importance of teaching pronunciation
1. Correctpronunciation is needed for a speaker to communicate. If our pronunciation isincorrect, we will not be understood. The result will be that Chinese peoplewill think you are speaking in a foreign language and English people will thinkyou are speaking Chinese. 2. It is more important for us language teachers tohave a good pronunciation. If we have not a good pronunciation, how can weenable our students to pronounce correctly?
2. The role of pronunciation
1). Two views:
a. Pronunciation needn't be taught as pronunciation can take care of itself.
b. Poorpronunciation is a hindrance in language learning.
2). For Chinese: pronunciation is important as
a. Chinese is different from English
b. Chinese has little exposure to English
3. The distinctionbetween pronunciation and phonetics
1). Phonetics is abranch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech.It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones), andtheir physiological production, auditory perception, and neurophysiologicstatus.
2). Pronunciationmeans the way a word or a language is customarily spoken.
3). So theteaching of pronunciation should focus on the students’ ability to identify and produce English soundsthemselves. Students should not be led to focus on reading and writing phonetictranscripts of words（单词的音标）, especially for young students, becausephonetic transcripts are more abstract and less meaningful.
4). Phonetic rulesregarding what sounds a letter or a cluster of letters should be uttered shouldbe introduced at a suitable stage and they should be avoided at the beginningstage, especially for young learners.
5). Stress andintonation should be taught from the very beginning.
4. The goal of teaching pronunciation
Learners ofEnglish as a foreign language cannot acquire native-like Englishpronunciation, except those who startlearning English at a very young age.
1) Factors todetermine whether the students can acquire native-like English pronunciation:
a. Age Critical Period Hypothesis: Ifhuman do not learn a foreign language before a certain age (perhaps around thepuberty青春期)，then dueto changes such as maturation (成熟) of the brain, it becomes impossible tolearn the foreign language like a native speaker.
b. The amount of exposure to English 3).Biological and physiological differences
Some students aremore sensitive to and better at imitating sounds than other students.
2) Our realisticgoal of teaching pronunciation
a. Consistency (连贯性): the pronunciation should be smooth and natural;
b. Intelligibility(可理解性): the pronunciation should beunderstandable to the listener;
c. Communicative efficiency (交际性): the pronunciation should help convey themeaning that is intended by the speaker.
5. Aspects of pronunciation
sounds, phoneticsymbols and rules, stress, intonation, and rhythm
6. Practicing sounds
1) Focus on asound
a. Say the sound alone.
b. Get thestudents repeat the sound in chorus
c. Get individual students to repeat thesound.
d. Explain how to make the sound.
e. Say the sound in a word.
f. Contrast it with other sounds.
g. Say the sound in meaningful context.
2) Perception practice: distinguish sounds
a. Using minimalpairs: will—well,
b. Which order:The teacher reads each group of words in different order and the students markthe words with 1,2,3: pit-pet-bet, beard-beer-bear.
c. Same ordifferent: The teacher reads pairs of words and asks the students to tell ifthe pairs of words are the same or different: met-meet, meet meat.
d. Odd one out:The teacher reads a group of words a time and the students identify thedifferent word or sound: feel, read, fill, leaf.
e. Completion:Fill in the blanks: Students fill in blanks in sentences with words whichcontain certain sounds.
3) Production practice
a. Listen andrepeat：Students repeat what the teacher says.
b. Make upsentences: Students make up sentences using words containing the same sound orsimilar sounds the teacher gives them.
c. Use meaningfulcontext: The sounds to focus on are embedded in a meaningful context.
d. Usepictures: practice sounds with the help of pictures.
e. Use tonguetwisters: You’ve no need to light a night-light on a light night like tonight.
4) Practicing stress and intonation
Practising stress
Stress is thepronunciation of a word or syllable with more force than the surrounding wordsor syllables. There are two kinds of stress that are important in achievinggood pronunciation.—word-level stress; phrase-level stress. Three ways ofshowing the stress pattern:
a. Use gestures:Clapping hands or using arm movements.
b. Use the voice: Raise the voice toindicate stress.
c. Use theblackboard: underlining them or writing them with coloured chalks.
Practising intonation
Intonation isoften describes as the music of speech----the way the voice goes up and down aswe speak.
a. The mostsuccessful technique for teaching intonation is imitation or mimicry. However,the use of gestures can reinforce this mimicry, that is, when the utterancerequires a falling intonation, better results are sometimes achieved if theteacher raise a hand and lists-it-falls in imitation of the change in voicepitch.
b. Linear(划线) intonation marking is a memorial device initself. Since it shows visually when arise or fall of the voice is required.
5) Suggestions on teaching pronunciation
a. Use individual,pair, group and whole class work to create a pleasant, relaxed, and dynamicclassroom.
b. Use hands andarms to conduct choral pronunciation practice.
c. Move around theclassroom when doing choral practice.
d. Vary thecriteria of “good” in pronunciation practice to give students confidence.
e. It is helpfulto do articulation practice (发音练习) more and once.
f. Bring interestsand variety to the practice of pronunciation. For example, asking students topractise an expression in different tones to show anger, happiness, surprises,sadness, or excitement etc.
g. The maincriteria for good pronunciation are consistency(连贯性),intelligibility(可理解性), and communicative efficiency (交际性).
h. Do not rely onexplanations. Make full use of demonstrations.
i. Try to usevisual aids.
7. Assignment: Answer the following questions:
1.What is the goalof teaching pronunciation?
2. How canteachers help the students to practice pronunciation?
8. Feedback
References:
1. https://www.icourse163.org/
2. https://www.icourse163.org/learn/GDUFS-1449601162#/learn/announce
