Bárbara Moclán Rosales

“Teach me pronunciation”

While you are teaching pronunciation there are a few things that every

teacher needs to develop.

-Awareness of potential student problems: For the teacher of Esl students

is so much easier to identify where might be a problem and pretty much

detecting it ,will help us to go across a teach students to overcome the

obstacle of a mispronunciation.

-Pedagogical priorities. Pronunciation is not like having grammar mistakes,

students have problems continuously but the issue here is that students

sometimes are not aware of it. For some students it is stuck on their brains,

and here is, when the work of the teacher comes in and try to fix it. Obviously,

it required time, patience and predisposition for both of them to take control of

the mispronounce words. There are a few techniques to achieve it, but the

student work just starts outside of the classroom.

Remember that the main purpose of the teacher is not to kill the accent of the

student, maybe to reduce to the minimum but is also important because you

do not what to interfere with the message.

Index

Read section…………………………………………………………I part

Pronunciation activities……………………………………………II part

How to Work on Pronunciation ……………………………………….III part

Articles……………………………………………………………….IV part

Advertisements…………………………………………………….V part

Ponunciation activities

Teaching “th”

Intermediate students

Elementary school oriented

Story tale is good way to learn, most of the times they already heard so that

is why is easier to practice.

In this case I use the three little pigs which is very popular. I used a written

story but another way could be by seen the video and identify the objects that

use that consonant.

Instructions:

First, the teacher will read the story tale. Each student will be divided into

couples and by helping each other will follow the instructions.

Second, each couple will have to come up with another ending using words

with “th” at least using 6 words with “th”.

Third, students explain the new end for the story.

Objectives

Students will learn vocabulary by creating a new ending for the story of the

three little pigs.

Students collaborate with each other in order to find the consonants.

Another activity.

Collage

Materials

Magazines

News paper

Scissors

Cardboard

Let your students find and cut the word that use the little “b” o any kind of

consonant. Let them pronounce after hearing the teacher pronunciation.

Finally, students create a collage using the words by past them on it. At the

end paste the letters in a big cardboard

Objectives

First the learn how to pronounce the words by repeating.

Second they learn more vocabulary buy playing and involves the whole class.

Teaching θ vs ð

Circle the consonants “th” . Use blue with the consonant that has this

phoneme “θ” and red the ones with “ð”.

Create another end for the story using words with “th”, at least 3 per

each phoneme.

The three little pigs.

Once upon a time there were three little pigs, who left their parents to see the world.

All summer long, they roamed through the

woods and over the plains, playing games and

having fun. None were happier than the

three little pigs, and they easily

made friends with everyone. Wherever they

went, they were given a warm welcome, but as

summer drew to a close, they realized that all

drifting back to their usual jobs, and preparing

for winter. Autumn came and it began to rain.

The three little pigs started to feel they needed

a real home. Sadly, they knew that the fun was over now and they must set to work like the

others, or they'd be left in the cold and rain, with no roof over their heads. They talked

about what to do, but each decided for himself. The laziest little pig said he'd build a straw

hut.

"It will only take a day,' he said. The others disagreed.

"It's too fragile," they said but he refused to listen.

Not quite so lazy, the second little pig went in search of planks of seasoned wood.

It took him two days to nail them together.

But the third little pig did not like the wooden house.” It takes time, patience and hard work to

build a house that is strong enough to stand up to wind, rain, and snow, and most of all, protect us

from the wolf!"

The days passed, and the wisest little pig's house took shape, brick by brick. From time to time, his

brothers visited him, saying, "Why are you working so hard? Why don't you come and play?" But the stubborn bricklayer pig

just said "no".

"I shall finish my house first. It must be strong. And then I'll come and play!" he said.” He who

laughs last, laughs longest!"

Now, it was the wisest little pig that found the tracks of a big wolf in the neighborhood.

The little pigs rushed home in alarm. Along came the wolf, scowling fiercely at the laziest pig's

straw hut.

"Come out!" ordered the wolf, his mouth watering. I want to speak to you!"

"I'd rather stay where I am!" replied the little pig in a tiny voice.

"I'll make you come out!" growled the wolf angrily, and puffing out his chest, he took a

very deep breath. Then he blew with all his might, right onto the house. And all the straw the

silly pig had heaped against some thin poles fell down. Excited by his own cleverness, the wolf did

not notice that the little pig had slipped out from underneath the heap of straw, and was dashing

towards his brother's wooden house. When he realized that the little pig was escaping, the wolf

grew wild with rage.

"Come back!" he roared, trying to catch the pig as he ran into the wooden house.

"I hope this house won't fall down! Let's lean against the door so he can't break in!" said the

little pig to his brother.

Outside, the wolf could hear the little pigs' words. Starving as he was, at the idea of a two course

meal, he rained blows on the door.

"Open up! Open up! I only want to speak to you!"

Inside, the two brothers wept in fear and did their best to hold the door fast against the blows.

Then the furious wolf braced himself a new effort: he drew in a really enormous breath, and went

... WHOOOOO! The wooden house collapsed like a pack of cards.

Luckily, the wisest little pig had been watching the scene from the window of his own brick

house, and he rapidly opened the door to his fleeing brothers. Soon after, the wolf came

hammering furiously on the door. This time, the wolf had grave doubts. This house had a much

more solid air than the others. He blew once, he blew again and then for a third time but all in

vain. For the house did not budge an inch. The three little pigs watched him and their fear began

to fade. Quite exhausted by his efforts, the wolf decided to try one of his tricks. He scrambled up a

nearby ladder, on to the roof to have a look at the chimney. However, the wisest little pig had

seen this ploy, and he quickly said.

"Quick! Light the fire!" With his long legs thrust down the chimney, the wolf was not sure if he

should slide down the black hole. It wouldn't be easy to get in, but the sound of the little pigs'

voices below only made him feel hungrier.

"I'm dying of hunger! I'm going to try and get down." And he let himself drop. But landing was

rather hot, too hot! The wolf landed in the fire.

The flames licked his hairy coat and his tail became a flaring torch.

“Never again will I go down a chimney" he squealed, as he tried to put out the flames in his tail.

Then he ran away as fast as he could.

Then the three happy little pigs, dancing round and round the yard, began to sing. "Tra-la-la! Tra-

la-la! The wicked black wolf will never come back...!"

From that terrible day on, the wisest little pig's brothers set to work with a will. In less than no

time, up went the two new brick houses. The wolf did return once to roam in the

neighborhood, but when he caught sight of three chimneys, he remembered the terrible pain of a

burnt tail, and he left for good.

Now safe and happy, the wisest little pig called to his brothers. "No more work! Come on, let's go

and play!"

"Three Little Pigs." Three Little Pigs. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairyt

Another activity

Here are a list of words, can your child tell you the opposite word that starts

with Y?

Old vs Young

No vs Yes

Me vs You

Yucky vs Yummy

Besides, how can I do?

Tongue twisters

Like what?

Games

Sometimes there is no time for you to spend with your child, a great idea is to let your

children play online. Here are a few suggestions. Where they learn by playing and also

to be capable of working with resources such as a computer.

How to Work on Pronunciation

She sells sea shells on the sea shore

Around the rugged rocks the ragged

rascal ran

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled

peppers, Where's the peck of pickled

peppers Peter Piper picked?

http://learnenglishkids.britishco

uncil.org/en/Spell

http://www.rachelsenglish.com/

videos/p-and-b-consonants

1. Mouth Positions

According to busy teacher (n.d) “Studies have shown that

explicit instruction in how to position the mouth while

speaking greatly helps learners tackling difficult sounds.”

What can you do?

Rent a movie

Watch the news

Catch up and learn

how to pronounce,

learn how to position

your tongue!

Enjoy a movie while

you are in the

process of learning

pronunciation.

2. Practice listening

According to busy teacher (n.d) “You need to hear it before you

can say it”.

A few suggestions

There are so many shows

on TV and there are a lot of

options for you to pick

from.

Anywhere and anytime you

can listen to your favorite

artist or listing to a program

and at the same time you

are developing your

listening skills.

Feedback

According to busy teacher (n.d) “It’s incredibly important that

students get feedback early and often before they begin bad

pronunciation habits that are difficult to adjust as later

learners”.

Self-reflection

Record yourself

You never know where you

can find a native speaker,

but if you do, why don´t

you try to talk to him/her.

You just need a

mirror to see how do

you actually are

mispronouncing the

words, so that you

can improve it.

3. Practice Word Stress with Vocabulary

According to busy teacher (n.d)”English has incredibly erratic

word stress patterns which are rather difficult to learn due to

all of the exceptions to the rules”.

You can be a better

speaker if you

record yourself,

because at the

same time you are

monitoring yourself.

Write down the words that

you cannot pronoun

properly and look for them

in the API dictionary.

When mispronunciation persist.

Pronunciation is very important because it is a key to communicate with

each other’s. Costa Rica is a not native English speaking country and most

of the student learn English in high school. In the process of learning you will

make some mistakes but just to ignore your mistake might harm you with

further consequences in the future. Explain to the students that if you are

correcting them it is not for them to be ashamed or embarrassed, it is for them

to improve and for them to embrace an opportunity that not everyone has.

Encourage your students to practice peer- correction instead of you all the

time helping them. If someone is correcting you, take a minute and look for

that word on a dictionary; you never know when you are going to learn more.

Why do not you try at home to use a mirror, to identify your mistakes and why

not, also to expand your knowledge.

According to yourdictionary.com these are one of the most common

mispronounced words

Learn vocabulary

to improve your

skills in

pronunciation.

A

Don't say: acrossed | Do say: across

Comment: It is easy to confuse "across" with "crossed" but better to keep

them separate.

Don't say: Antartic | Do say: Antarctic

Comment: Just think of an arc of ants (an ant arc) and that should help you

keep the [c] in the pronunciation of this word.

B

Don't say: a blessing in the skies | Do say: a blessing in disguise

Comment: This phrase is no blessing if it comes from the skies. (Pronounce

it correctly and help maintain the disguise.)

C

Don't say: caucaphony | Do say: cacophony

Comment: There is no greater cacophony [kæ'kafêni] to the ears than to hear

the vowels switched in the pronunciation of this word.

D

Don't say: doggy dog world | Do say: dog eat dog world

Comment: The world is even worse than you think if you think it merely a

"doggy-dog world." Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.

E

Don't say: elec'toral | Do say: e'lectoral

Comment: The accent is on the second, not the third, syllable and there is no

[i] in it; not "electorial." (By the way, the same applies to "mayoral" and

"pastoral.")

F

Don't say: Febyuary | Do say: February

Comment: We don't like two syllables in succession with an [r] so some of us

dump the first one in this word. Most dictionaries now accept the single [r]

pronunciation but, if you have an agile tongue, you may want to shoot for the

original.

H

Don't say: hi-archy | Do say: hierarchy

Comment: Remember, hierarchies go higher than you might think. This one

is pronounced "higher archy" and not "high archy."

I

Don't say: in parenthesis | Do say: in parentheses

Comment: No one can enclose an expression in one parenthesis; at least two

parentheses are required.

J

Don't say: jist nor dis | Do say: just

Comment: As opposed to the adjective "just," this word is always

unaccented, which encourages vowel reduction. However, it sounds better to

reduce the [ê] rather than replace it with [i].

K

Don't say: Klu Klux Klan | Do say: Ku Klux Klan

Comment: Well, there is an [l] in the other two, why not the first? Well, that is

just the way it is; don't expect rationality from this organization.

L

Don't say: leash | Do say: lease

Comment: Southern Americans are particularly liable to confuse these two

distinct words but the confusion occurs elsewhere. Look out for it.

M

Don't say: mis'chievous | Do say: mischievous

Comment: It would be mischievous of me not to point out the frequent

misplacement of the accent on this word. Remember, it is accented the same

as mischief. Look out for the order of the [i] and [e] in the spelling, too and

don't add another [i] in the ending (not mischievious).

N

Don't say: nother | Do say: other

Comment: Misanalysis is a common type of speech error based on the

misperception of where to draw the line between components of a word of

phrase. "A whole nother" comes from misanalyzing "an other" as "a nother."

Not good. Not good.

O

Don't say: ostensively | Do say: ostensibly

Comment: Be sure to keep your suffixes straight on this one.

P

Don't say: pronounciation | Do say: pronunciation

Comment: Just as "misspelling" is among the most commonly misspelled

words, "pronunciation" is among the most commonly mispronounced words.

Fitting, no?

R

Don't say: respite | Do say: respite

Comment: Despite the spelling similarity, this word does not rhyme with

despite; it is pronounced ['re-spit]. Give yourself a permanent respite from

mispronouncing it.

S

Don't say: stob | Do say: stub

Comment: In some areas the vowel in this word has slid a bit too far back in

the mouth. Don't choke on it.

T

Don't say: tact | Do say: tack

Comment: If things are not going your way, do not lose your tact that would

be tactless but take a different tack.

ther, so some of us insert a spare vowel. Pronounce it right, spell it right.

U

Don't say: upmost | Do say: utmost

Comment: While this word does indicate that efforts are up, the word is

"utmost," a(!) historical variation of "outmost."

V

Don't say: verbage | Do say: verbiage

Comment: Here is another word that loses its [i] in speech. Pronouncing it

correctly will help you spell it correctly.

W

Don't say: wet | Do say: whet

Comment: In the Northeastern US the sound [hw], spelled "wh," is vanishing

and these two words are pronounced the same. Elsewhere they should be

distinguished.

Y

Don't say: yoke | Do say: yolk

Comment: Another dialectal change we probably should not call an error: [l]

becomes [w] or [u] when not followed by a vowel. Some people just confuse

these two words, though. That should be avoided.

ADVERTISEMENTS

“No one is exempt from the rule that learning occurs through

recognition of error,”― Alexander Lowen, Bioenergetics

Jokes

According to developingteachers.com (n.d)

“Mother: Why did you get such a low mark on that test?

Joe: Because of absence.

Mother: You mean you were absent on the day of the test?

Joe: No, but the kid who sits next to me was.”

Retrieved from: http://www.developingteachers.com/tips/jokes.htm

According to teacherjoe.us (n.d)…

“One day, a teacher was attempting to teach the names of animals to a class

of 5-year-olds. She held up a picture of a deer, and asked one boy, "Billy, what

is this animal?". Little Billy looked at the picture with a disheartened look on

his face and responded, "I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, I don't know.". The teacher was

not one to give up easily, so she then asked Billy, "Well, Billy, what does your

Mommy call your Daddy?" Little Billy's face suddenly brightened up, but then a

confused look came over his face, as he asked, "Mrs. Smith, is that really a

pig?"!”

Jokes to Increase Your Vocabulary(Move your mouse over the red words to see

their meaning.). (n.d.). Joke 02. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from

http://teacherjoe.us/Joke02.html