The road is difficult, not because of the deep water and the
high mountains that bar the way, but because we loose heart
when we think of the river and the mountain.
Vietnamese saying

This information is provided to help teachers to:
• Refresh basic theoretical positions on pronunciation teaching (for this purpose a set of tasks with answers is suggested)
• Raise awareness of tools and techniques for teaching pronunciation

The importance of teaching pronunciation cannot be overestimated. As new demands have been imposed on ELT training by the Ministry of Education with the introduction of new state standard of education in 1998, which are aimed at training specialists able to teach English for communication, teaching pronunciation becomes more important than ever. The way we sound when we speak a foreign language has a strong influence on the assumptions other people make about us and the judgements they make about the sort of people we are.

A learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult to understand. This can be very frustrating for the learner who may have a good command of grammar and lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native speaker.

Task 1. Explain the problem of communication in the following examples:

a) I asked where the boss was, but they sent me to the bus station.
b) I asked her if she was living here, and she said no, she was staying.
c) I told him I had worked a lot in the weekend, and he asked me how many miles.

Here’s one more example – а short poem, which shows a few difficulties of English pronunciation. Can you read the key words correctly? You probably already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Some may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, plough and through.
Beware of heard, an awkward word:
It looks like beard but sounds like “bird”!
Watch out for meat and great and threat;
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
And here is not a match of there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose,
But watch that “s” in goose and choose!
It’s cork but work, and card but ward;
And font but front, and word but sword;
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language, full of tricks?
I mustered it when I was six …

Task 2. To be sure that we are talking about the same things match the terms with their definitions.

Phonology the rise and fall of the voice when speaking

Phonetics the smallest element of sound in a language which is recognized by a native speaker as making a difference in meaning
Phoneme a vocal sound made without the audible stopping of breath
Stress the study of speech sounds and sound production in general
Consonant the greater emphasis of some syllables or words over others during speech
Vowel a sound made with audible stopping of breath
Rhythm the study of how speech sounds are produced and used and distinguished in a specific language
Intonation the regular repetition of stress in time

Mistakes that occur in pronunciation can lead to misunderstanding as sounds change the meaning of words that’s why we should take into account all the components of pronunciation teaching.
The fact that pronunciation tends to suffer from neglect may not be due to teachers lacking interest in the subject but rather to a feeling of doubt as to how to teach it.

Practical phonetics lessons can be divided into three types:
1. Integrated lesson, in which pronunciation forms an essential part of the language analysis and the planning process, and the language presentation and practice within the lesson.
2. Practice lesson, in which a particular feature of pronunciation is isolated and practised for its own sake, forming the main focus of a lesson period.
3. Remedial or reactive lesson, where a pronunciation difficulty, which arises in class, is dealt with there and then, in order to facilitate the successful achievement of classroom tasks.

Integrated lesson

Teaching pronunciation can be used to complement other language work, i.e. it is integrated with other aspects of language teaching.

Will continue in the next article...