Finding * * * * * * * in Teaching Finding * * * * * * * in Teaching IntelligibleIntelligible Pronunciation Pronunciation

Zhang Hong (张虹 )School of Foreign Languages

Southwest University

outline

• Welcome & introduction• Objectives• Take-aways• Questions you have• What to teach? How to teach?1. Segmental phonemes (consonants and

vowels)2. Suprasegmental features• Techniques and activities• Classroom language• Debriefing: Questions and comments

Objectives

• Provide you with a chance to “think afresh” about teaching pronunciation in your context;

• Offer you some ideas from the research and from other teachers’ experience with teaching pronunciation;

• Use this workshop to demonstrate some approaches and techniques in teaching pronunciation;

• Have some fun!

Take-aways

• You will leave with at least one (hopefully more than one) new strategy for teaching pronunciation;

• You will take away a clearer understanding of your colleagues’ thinking and their successes in teaching pronunciation;

• You will exit this workshop with a renewed feeling of excitement and energy about teaching pronunciation;

• You will go out of this room with a great appetite for supper.

What problems do you have in teaching pronunciation?

• Write No. 1 and No. 2 problem in your teaching pronunciation without speaking to anybody else.

• Possible answers:1. Pronunciation teaching is not attached

importance to.2. I have problems with pronunciation, too.3. When to teach pronunciation?…….

Possible problems of pronunciation

1. Using the wrong sound( 发音错误 )• copy vs. coffee (Korean)• sheep vs. ship (Chinese) beach vs. bitch

2. Leaving sounds out ( 吞音 )• children’s programme• window —— widow

3. Adding sounds • student• good

4. Putting stress on the wrong syllable in a word

record v./n.perfect adj. / v.fifteen vs. fifty

5. Putting stress on the wrong word in the sentence

• My sister likes apples.• My sister likes apples.• My sister likes apples.• My sister likes apples.

6. Using the wrong intonation pattern• Come on. That won’t hurt.

(encouragement?)

7. Combined problems

The National English Curriculum

What/how to teach?(I)

Teaching consonants

• Pronouncing the 24 consonants• Steps of focusing on a sound1.Say the sound alone (presentation orally and

in a written form).2.Get students to repeat the sound in chorus.3.Get individual students to repeat the sound.4.Explain how to make the sound (visually and

verbally)5.Students practice.6.Say the sound in a word.7.Say the sound in meaningful context.8.(Contrast it with other sounds.)

Description of consonants

• What parts of the mouth are used?• How the sound is made?• Whether or not a sound is made in the

throat1.With a sound in the throat (voiced)2.Without any sound in the throat

(voiceless)

Practice: fairy; zoo; think

What/how to teach?(II)——Vowels

• 12 monophthongs

• 8 diphthongs

Descriptions of vowels

• How far front or back the tongue is in the mouth;

• How high or low the tongue is in the mouth;

• How rounded or spread the lips are;• Whether or not the tongue moves during

production of the vowel sound;• In many accents of English, for vowels

which are produced without moving the tongue, there may also be a difference in length of the vowel (short/long vowels).

What/how to teach?(III)——suprasegmental features

• Stress within words1. the same word with different parts of

speech e.g. import n./v.2. Compound nouns e.g. White House;

blueberries3. Compound verbs e.g. make up; turn on4. Suffixes(1) stress-preserving: entertain-----

entertainment(2) stress-attracting: cigar----cigarette(3) stress-shifting: educate----education

Rhythm, stress and intonation within sentences

• Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after.

• Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his

crown And Jill came tumbling after.

• English tones include rising, falling and falling-rising.1. Falling ToneStatement (or wh-question)DefinitenessEnd of a list e.g. We need milk, eggs, and sugar.2. Rising ToneYes-no questionIndicating surpriseEnd of an item (but not the last one) in a list3. Falling-Rising ToneIndicating uncertainty, hesitation e.g. I think so.Indicating encouragement e.g. Come on! This won’t

hurt!Indicating syntactic break in the middle of a sentence

Pause, speed and key

• When we use long sentences, we tend to break them into chunks, and we pause briefly between chunks.

• To make our speech more interesting and easier to understand, it is necessary to vary the speed.

• A higher key:1. To indicate excitement or other emotional responsee.g. Look! He’s coming, he’s coming!2. To begin a new topic on a higher keye.g. Ok. Well, I guess that’s all on that subject. Now another thing

we need to talk about is…• A lower key:1. To add a bit of nonessential informatione.g. Now, when Sam took the course —— he’s my cousin—— he

hound it fascinating.2. To signal that we are about to end our turn in a conversatione.g. It took us a long time to get over that. Well, I guess that’s all

I know about it.

contractions

(1) Some contractions sound the same but have different grammar.

e.g. He’s great. / He’s been great. He’d gone. / He’d better go./He’d go.

(2) Some contractions are irregular in pronunciation.e.g. I don’t know. / I dunno. You have to go. / You hafta go. I want to go. /I wanna go.(3) Some contractions have a sound change when spoken on the

palate.

Did you help…./ Didja help… Can’t you help…/ Can’tcha help?

reductions

(1) Function words such as “and” and “of” drop their final consonants.

• cup of coffee / cuppa coffee• ham and eggs/ ham ‘n eggs(2) Vowel “i” of the words “it” and “is” is

sometimes dropped at the beginning of a sentence.

• Is that your car? / ‘zat your car?• It’s my car./ ‘ts my car.(3) The “h” and “v” are dropped in the auxiliary

verb “have” in past models, thus reducing it to schwa.

• He could/should have come./ He coulda/shoulda, come.

Project English 七年級上冊

In each book: 4 units (4 titles) 3 topics under each unit (12 topics in total) 4 sections in each topic (A, B, C, D)

Look, listen and say Look and say Look, listen and learn Look, say and matchListen, say and write Listen, read and say Listen and follow/say, and then

mark the intonationRead and match Read and understand Listen and number/circle/match

七年级（上） Unit 1 Getting to Know You

Topic 3 Section D 3a Grammar focuse.g. Is that a/an…? Yes, it is. / No, it isn’t. It’s an orange.

七年级（上） Unit 2 Looking Different

Topic 1 Section C 1a Read and understand

I am a boy. I’m thirteen years old. I come

from England. I’m a student. I have a round face, a big nose, a small mouth and small eyes. I have a sister. Her name is Amy. She is twelve. She is a student, too. My sister and I look different. She has a round face, a small nose, a small mouth and big eyes. We are in the same school, but in different grades.

Techniques, activities and games of teaching pronunciation——using

mutisensory modes I. Visual and autitory reinforcement • Accustoming the ears—— minimal pairs( 最

小对立体 )• Repeated exposure to the problem sounds

in contexts where the meaning is clear from non-auditory clues is most likely to succeed.

e.g. Choose the right picture

Solving a mystery

e.g. A witness to a smuggling operation claims to

have seen something suspicious one night by the coastline. The police ask him what exactly he thinks he saw and he replies:

I think it was a sheep. or I think it was a ship.

2. Playing with the tongue e.g. zzzzzzzz

sssssssssssss3. Associating with a set phrase or a

sentence e.g. /ei/ The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

4. chant

Chant: Funny valentine

• Boys are silly. Girls are smart.• I love you with all my heart.• Boys are noisy. Girls are cute.• You like me, and I like you.• Mama loves coffee; Papa loves tea.• I love my teacher and my teacher loves me.• The birds won’t sing, the stars won’t shine, if

you won’t be my valentine.

II. Tactile reinforcement e.g. vocal cords feel; mirrors (for vowels);

III. Kinesthetic reinforcement • Having listeners identify the number of syllables by

holding up the corresponding numbers of fingers as they pronounce multisyllabic words or phrases.

e.g. introduction• Exercises that focus on the pronounced rhythmic

beat or stress timing of English. While the teacher reads the passage aloud, students can clap, snap their fingers, or tap out the rhythm.

e.g. Birds eat worms.The birds eat worms.The birds eat the wormsThe birds will eat the worms.The birds will have eaten the worms.

An example of teaching pronunciation

Snow, snowFalls slow

On my windowThat is yellow.

Classroom English

• Beginning the class• Simple instructions• Ending the class• Spontaneous situation• Classroom management• Error correction and feedback

Guess the missing word in the title!

Suggestions for teaching pronunciation

• Speak English as frequently as possible!• Listen more & practice more!• Teachers become confident!• Using various resources!• Presentation!• Use body language to facilitate your

pronunciation teaching!• Cater for students’ different learning

styles!

Debriefing: questions and comments

• How might you be able to adapt or use some of these ideas?

• What would you suggest I do differently the next time?

References

• Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation. CUP.

• Poedjosoedarmo, G. (2007). Teaching pronunciation: Why, what, when and how. Beijing: People’s Education Press.

• 北京市仁爱教育研究所 . 2007. 英语（七年级上册） . 长沙：湖南教育出版社 .

• 王蔷 . 2006. 英语教学法教程 . 北京：高等教育出版社 .