Teachers often report that teaching pronunciation is frustrating – a lot of pain for limited gain. This is especially so when prerequisite skills integral to acquiring new speech sounds are missed in the lesson.
Teachers and students often assume that a pronunciation problem is due to not understanding how to articulate (or say) the new target sound. While this is true to an extent, a pronunciation problem is just as likely due to the student’s inability to perceive the new sound. This includes an understanding of how the sound is organized in the language sound system and an ability to recognize it.
Perception precedes production.
Our brains are wired to perceive sounds of our first languages, and not necessarily those of a new language. If we can’t accurately hear or perceive the sound, it is not possible to practice making it.
Try these easy activities:
- Use minimal pairs. The word pairs differ by one sound, (e.g., “sheet” and “seat”). Present the words and say one of the words in the pair. The student indicates which word s/he perceived by pointing to the correct word/picture. Lots of practice, careful listening, and giving immediate feedback are key. This works especially well when the word pair contrasts the new target sound with the student’s replacement sound, (e.g., ‘s’ instead of ‘sh’).
- Increase awareness of the target sound: provide multiple examples of useful words and sentences that include the sound; read aloud passages from any resource and ask students to identify how many times you said (or they perceived) the target sound; ask students to identify objects in the classroom or in pictures that have the target sound.
Remember that these are listening exercises only. Take care that you are talking while students are listening, and avoid giving unwanted visual clues with spelling in words. Once students truly perceive the new sound, they are ready to move forward with learning how to produce the sound.
English Central thanks Adrienne Nobbe for writing these teaching tips. Adrienne is a Speech-Language Pathologist who is also a certified ESL instructor.
