Unit Six

1
Unit Six

• Teaching Pronunciation

2
Aims of the Unit

• 1. The role of pronunciation in language
  learning.
• 2. The goal of teaching pronunciation.
• 3.The aspects of pronunciation we need to teach.
• 4. The ways to help student to improve
  pronunciation.

3
I. The importance of teaching pronunciation

• Correct pronunciation is needed for a speaker to
  communicate.
• It is more important for us language teachers to
  have a good pronunciation.

4
I. The importance of teaching pronunciation

• e.g.
• I need some medicine for my coughkof.
  I need some medicine for my cough kau(caw)
• He is not a boy who is afraid of hardship and
  death.
• He is not a boy, who is afraid of hardship
  and death.
• (with or without a pause before "who" is quite
  different.)

5
Questions

• Task 1(P91)

6
Task 1

• Learners whose native language has similar sounds
  to English are less likely to have problems with
  pronunciation
• Learners who have more exposure to English need
  less focus on pronunciation

7
Task 1

• Adult learners need more focus on pronunciation
  because they are more likely to substitute
  English sounds with sounds from their native
  language.
• Beginning Chinese learners of English should
  focus on pronunciation and their ability to
  identify and produce English sounds themselves,
  because phonetic transcripts are more abstract
  and less meaningful.

8
II. The goal of teaching pronunciation

• 1. Whats considered as a good pronunciation?
• A good pronunciation means
• to pronounce correctly all the speech sounds of
  the language and all the combinations in their
  proper order not only isolated words, but also in
  sentences
• to pronounce sentences fluently at the speed
  required by the situation with correct stresses,
  linking of sounds, rhythm, pauses and intonation.
• As a matter of fact, most Chinese learners of
  English do not have enough exposure to English to
  acquire native-like pronunciation.

9
2. Critical period hypothesis

• Critical period hypothesis if humans do not
  learn a foreign language before a certain age,
  then due to changes such as maturation of the
  brain and speech organs, it seems impossible to
  learn the foreign language like a native speaker.
• The amount of exposure to English
• Individual ability. Due to biological and
  physiological difference, some students are more
  sensitive to and better at imitating sounds than
  others.

10
3. The realistic goal of teaching Pronunciation.

• Consistency (???)The pronunciation should be
  smooth and natural.
• Intelligibility(????) The pronunciation should
  be understandable to the listeners.
• Communicative efficiency The pronunciation
  should help to convey the meaning that is
  intended by the speaker.

11
III. Aspects of pronunciation
12
IV. Practising sounds

• 1. Focusing on a sound
• When teaching pronunciation, we need to focus
  on individual sounds, especially those sounds
  that are difficult to learn.
• Vowels/i/ /i/ /e/ /e/ /E/ /E/ /C/ /C/ /A/
  /Q//a/
• Diphthong/iE/, /ZE/, /uE/, /au/ /Eu/
• Consonants /tF/,/dV/,/W/,/T/,/dz/,/ts/,/n/,/N/
• /F/,/V/

13

• 2. Perception practice(????) Distinguish sounds
• Using minimal pairs
• Which order
• Same or different
• Odd man out(?????????)
• Completion

14

• 3. Production practice
• Listen and repeat
• Fill in the blanks
• Make up sentences
• Use meaningful context
• Use pictures
• Use tongue twisters.

15

• 4. The presentation of teaching pronunciation.
• 1) To introduce the sound.
• 2) Imitation, description and comparison and
  contrast.
• imitation
• description
• Comparison and contrast
• 3) Familiarization
• 4) Production

16
V. practicing stress and intonation

• 1. practicing stress.
• Two kinds of stress rising tone, falling tone
• word-level stress phrase-level stress.
• Three ways of showing the stress pattern
• Use gestures. Clapping hands or using arm
  movements
• Use the voice. raise the voice to indicate
  stress.
• Use the blackboard. Underlining them or writing
  them with coloured chalks

17

• Gestures. The teacher may do any of the
  followings to indicate the stress patterns.
• 1)Thump the air when saying the stressed
  syllable.
• "Good 'morning!
• 2)Make a downward stroke(?)of the hand-marking
  the "beat" like orchestra conductor. e.g
• Would you like to be a good student?
• Of 'course I would.
• 3) punch the palm of his other hand
• 4)clap his hands. e.g. im'portant
• 5)bang his hand against something, such as desk
  or the blackboard.

18

• 2. Practising intonation
• The most successful technique for teaching
  intonation is imitation or mimicry.
• Linear(??) intonation marking is a memorial
  device in itself.

19
Reference

• Chapter 9. teaching pronunciation
• (English Teaching Techniques170),
• Home work Practice teaching 26 letters.

20
The End of the Unit.
Good Bye!