Teaching English pronunciation is complex because each level has different goals. This article on how to teach pronunciation summarizes the most important things to cover at each level.
It also points you to resources on the site, like learning plans and activities, that you can use in class and help your educators improve their English pronunciation skills.
After each level, a few ideas for activities are suitable for that level. Lastly, the most pleasing way to help students improve how they say English is to get someone to speak English more than they can.
Want to learn more about language? With AmazingTalker, you can connect with one-on-one English Tutors to help you improve your English speaking. You can also find tutors like French Tutors!
Table of Contents
1. Teaching English Pronunciation Through Phonics Exercises
The most obvious and conventional way to teach English pronunciation would be through phonics. Phonics teaches letter, vowel, and consonant sounds when learning how to read.
A website provides a good picture for comprehending phonics in acquiring pronunciation: “Letters form sounds, sounds form words, words make sentences, sentences form tales, stories form understanding, meaning forms reading.”
Visual phonics animated sounds and words to assist ESL learners in assimilating what they’re seeing and hearing and identifying sounds, languages, and meanings.
According to one source, visual phonics helps children visualize linkages among sounds and letters, sounds and words, and words and syllables. Learning English pronunciation is fun and creative with visual phonics.
2. Notice Students’ Mouths
For your student to learn how to say words correctly, uttering must be an active process. It’s essential for students who don’t speak English as their first language to know the different vowel sounds in English since they might not have them in their first language. One teacher says, “Show them what to do with their mouths to make the sound. Give them drills to help them build muscle memory. Give them feedback along the way.” For your older students, it might help to show pictures or show with your mouth where the tongue and lips should be placed to make a certain sound.
3. Intonation, Syllable Stress, and Vowel
Intonation is how we raise or lower our voices to convey emotion or meaning. Your voice should increase whenever you ask a yes/no question or express incredulity (He didn’t go to school today? Really?) Conversely, regular remarks or queries that require more than just a one-word answer should lower your voice.
Pay close attention to syllable stress. For mastering syllable stress, there should be specific activities and exercises for how to say words. For example, it would be best to start by teaching your educators how to calculate the number of syllables in a term by clapping or singing on through as each syllable is counted.
Vowel songs help pupils pronounce vowels correctly. You can create vowel and syllable melodies using pictures, movies, objects, and dance moves.
4. Practice Minimal Pairs and Connected Speech
Minimal pairs help you tell the difference in sound between two words that look the same but have different spellings. For example, one source says, “Words like ‘bit’ and ‘bat,’ which are different by only one sound, can be used to show voicing (‘curl’ and ‘girl’) or sounds that are often mixed up (‘play’ and ‘pray’).” Afterwards, tongue twisters or rhyming poems are great and fun ways to learn to tell the difference between similar sounds.
Connected speech is how words flow together in conversational English, confusing non-native speakers. If you can, educate your pupil’s related lesson. Linking is a connected speech in which the conclusion of one-word blends into another, as in “Cats or Dogs?”
5. Conversational Practice: Listen to The Conversations and Practice Them
Having a conversational practice in English with someone who speaks the language is a great way to improve. As a result, you can speak more confidently about various issues. A native speaker can also assist you with your language skills, such as proper pronunciation, grammar, and an appreciation of the local customs.
You may be perplexed as to why you’ll require an English-speaking companion. No matter how much you study grammar, memorize vocabulary, and watch TV episodes in English, you will never be able to communicate effectively in the language.
You’ll speak over what you know to put your knowledge to the test and learn more. You’ll need an English-speaking conversation companion for this.
6. To Ensure That Your Students Feel Confident
English has a lot of rules. The rules determining pronunciation might be confusing. Make sure your students are strong in their English skills and use fun, creative, and engaging activities to teach pronunciation. They have trouble pronouncing words, incredibly stressed and unstressed ones. There are many options to help your student pronounce words and make sounds. Drilling games, listen-and-repeat, extracting sounds, and phrase games also help. Using these five strategies to teach your kids can enhance your pronunciation and knowledge of words and sounds.
Conclusion
Therefore, these are the fundamentals every English instructor with teaching levels ranging from pre-intermediate to advanced may add a little pronunciation to their classes to spice up their lessons and give their students something they want to learn.
Always remember that enhancing one’s English accent is a process rather than a quick fix that can be accomplished overnight. Learning English takes time.
Please urge them to know that the first step in improving their pronunciation is to become aware of the defects in their current pronunciation.
In addition, make it a point to check out Amazingtalker in order to improve your pronunciation with the assistance of knowledgeable coaches and counselors.
