According to the new school Curriculum and the European Council of Education the problem of teaching pronunciation in TEFL is a very actual one and it had been studied and analyzed by many great teachers. I tried also to do a research and I dedicated it to this topic :” WAYS OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN TEFL “. I did it because I feel it important and necessary to be taught in schools lyceums or even individually. My research comprises four chapters . The first one is a practical one , the second and the third are practical chapters and finely the last one is left for general conclusions.
As I have already mentioned the first chapter is a theoretical one and it is entitled “ Theoretical foundations of teaching pronunciation in TEFL “ . I thought it is necessary to speak here about difficulties in teaching and I am sure we can not teach English without having knowledge about micro skills and techniques used in modern teaching of English pronunciation. Concerning the second chapter , that means the “ Practical Part “, I displayed a vast information about the most important peculiarities of teaching English sounds .
Every teacher of English needs to know that pronunciation consists also in teaching English vowels , consonants and diphthongs as well . Students in their turn should be taught to practice all these aspects through exercises and many other activities . It helps to students to pronounce sounds like the English people do and to develop a great instinct in each learner to speak a beautiful English . Chapter number three is dedicated to teaching prosodic features . That is to say that when English is taught we have to take into account that it can not be taught without teaching intonation, rhythm and rhyme and even stress and sentence stress .
All these are rendered in this chapter and also I tried to show that activities are important in this domain too. The last chapter is left as usually for general conclusions . While writing the conclusions I thought it would be good to mention the aspects I touched upon and to prove that what I did is of great importance in my future career as a teacher . But there is one more aspect I mean there are lots of aspects in English pronunciation which I did not study and even did not touch upon . Such aspects as weak and strong forms in sentences or even reading rules are also important in pronunciation .
What I mean is that these topics can be studied and analyzed by the others in order to render a wonderful research which can be a real source for all the teachers and learners of English as a second language or as a foreign language . Probably my next research will be based on these aspects I have just mentioned above . I tried to do my best and I hope that my research dedicated to “ Ways of Teaching Pronunciation In TEFL “ will serve for teachers of English to teach their students the best pronunciation . CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL FONDATION OF TEACHING PRONUNCIATION IN TEFL 1. Difficulties In Teaching English Pronunciation First of all I would like to begin with the question : “ What is pronunciation ? “ The English Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary gives the following definition for the termpronunciation – the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced and secondly it is the way in which a particular person pronounces the words of a given language , in our case , the words of English . Well, there are two aspects of pronunciation . The first – the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced needs a special attention . Why is it so ?
Because in order to know how to pronounce the words or the sounds a person should be taught first. So in this paper we are trying to discover how many and which aspects of pronunciation must learn or must be taught . In G. V. Rogova’s “ Methods of Teaching English “ in the compartment “ Teaching Pronunciation “ we find that the first impact of any language comes from the spoken word. The basis of all languages is sound , but words are merely combinations of sounds . That is absolutely right and yet the acquisition of good pronunciation depends to a great extent on the learner’s ability of listening with care and discrimination .
One of the tasks of language teaching consists in devising ways to help the learners and the unfamiliar sounds . The hearing of a given word calls forth the acoustic image of that word from which a meaning is obtained . Therefore teaching pronunciation is of great importance in the developing of pupils ‘ hearing and speaking habits and skills. Teaching pronunciation is as well of no less importance in the developing of reading and writing habits , since writing or what is written is a graphic representation of sound sequences.
In reading the visual images become acoustic images . These are combined with kinesthetic images , resulting in inner speech . Wrong pronunciation often leads to misunderstanding . For example when a speaker or a reader replaces one phoneme with another , he unintentionally uses quite a different word , in this way altering the sense of what he wanted to say . e. g. white instead ofwide ,it instead ofeat ;pot instead of port , etc. Every teacher must understand how important the teaching correct pronunciation is . As we already know any language has its specific phonic system .
This is true for English as well . The sounds of English are not the same as the sounds of Romanian or even of Russian . The pronunciation of words is not only a matter of sounds , but also of stress on accent . Some words have the heavier stress on the first part of the word : e. g. sorry , evening , morning , answer . and other words have the heavier stress on the second part : e. g. begin , mistake , about , reduce , result , occur , effect . Rogova suggests us that stress is really very important to the assimilation of English pronunciation . oreigners often find it difficult to understand an English man’s speech and ask him to speak more slowly , because in quick speech the accented syllables are so strong that they almost drown the others. The pronunciation of sentence patterns includes also variations of musical tones : rise and fall . English tones patterns differ from those of Romanian , that is why pupils find it difficult to use adequate tone patterns in conversation or while reading aloud . Sometimes Romanian people speaking English use wrong intonation because of the interference of the mother tongue .
That often leads to misunderstanding and impoliteness : e. g.? Will you wait for me? here ? is not only a wrong tone pattern but is impolite in its form . While studying the ESL and EFL programs we notice that ‘English’ is a term that can refer to various dialects , including British English , North American English and others. Obviously those studying English in order to fit into their new country will learn the variety spoken there . However for those who do not intend to change countries the question arises of which sort of English to learn .
If they are going abroad for a short time to study English , they need to chose which country . For those staying at home , the choice may be made for them in that private language schools or the state school system may only offer one model . For example students studying EFL in Hong Kong , are more likely to learn British English , whereas students in the Philippines are more likely to learn American English . Language teaching practice often assumes that most of the difficulties that learners face in the study of English are a consequence of the degree to which their native language differs from English .
A native speaker of Romanian , for example, may face much more difficulties than a native speaker of German . This may be true for anyone of any other mother tongue , also called first language , setting out to learn any other language . Language learners often produce errors of syntax and pronunciation thought to result from the influence of their mother tongue , such as mapping its grammatical patterns inappropriately onto the second language , pronouncing sounds incorrectly or with difficulty or confusing items of vocabulary known as false friends .
This is known as mother tongue transfer or language interference . However this transfer aspects are typically stronger for beginners ‘ language production . It happens very often that teachers are comfortable teaching reading , writing , listening and to a degree general oral skills , but when it comes to pronunciation we often lack the basic knowledge of articulator phonetics not difficult to acquire , to offer students anything more rudimentary and unhelpful advice. There is also a tendency for us to focus on production as the main problem affecting our learners .
Most research however , shows clearly that the problem is more likely to be reception – what you do not hear , you do not say . Moreover if the English is not clearly received the brain of the learner converts it into the closest sound into their own language . Thus the dental English fricative[th] in ‘those’ becomes converted by Spanish speakers into the dentalised Spanish[ d] , producing ‘dose‘ , as if what the speakers hears . Given this reality , it would seem logically to place a heavy emphasize on listening or reception as a way into releasing appropriate pronunciation or production .
Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of their pronunciation problems , it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what elements of English phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems . This is one area of language learning where few people would question the use of contrastive analysis. It is very important to mention the opinion of Marianne Celce-Murcia and Janet M. Godwin concerning difficulties in teaching English pronunciation . They say that there have been many differences of opinion over the years in the language teaching pronunciation and about how best to teach it.
In direct approaches pronunciation is very important but the methodology is primitive : the teacher is ideally a native or near native speaker of the target language who presents pronunciation inductively and corrects via modeling – listen and imitate me as best as you can . There is a threshold level of pronunciation in English such as that if a nonnative speaker’s pronunciation falls below this level he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar might be.
What are the variables that seem to impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable pronunciation in English ? Kenworthy (1987) provides a useful inventory . For each of her 6 factors we can make our own conclusion at the end. The first factor is the learner’s native language. Mother-tongue transfer is generally more systematic , pervasive and persistent in th area of pronunciation than it is in grammar or in lexicon . This makes it important for teachers to know something about the sound system of the language that their learners speak in order to anticipate problems and understand the source of errors
The second factor is the learner’s age . The younger the age when the learner begins to acquire English the better the learner’s pronunciation . In fact complete mastery of English before age 12 generally results in accent-free speech , whereas acquisition after age 15 virtually guarantees some degree of accentedness in speech. The third factor is the learner’s exposure . Exposure to the target language can refer to both the length of time and the extensity of the exposure over time. Generally speaking the more time spent on learning the spoken language the better the pronunciation .
The learner’s innate phonetic ability is the fourth factor. Some people simply have more skills at or aptitude for imitating and producing sounds and sound patterns that are new to them. All other things equal such learners will achieve a better pronunciation than will those learners with lesser aptitude. The fifth factor is the learner’s attitude and sense of identity. The attitude the learner has toward the target language and its speakers may affect his or her pronunciation . The more favorable the attitude , the better the pronunciation is.
The sixth is the learner’s motivation and concern for good pronunciation . This factor is of great importance in pronunciation instruction. If the learner ‘s motivation to prove is strong and if the investment of time and effort is great , there will be improvement . Another difficulty that may occur is the difference between the sound system of the languages . For example if we compare Romanian with English than it is easy to observe the following differences: 1. Romanian does not have dental fricatives ? voiceless[? ] may be replaced with a dental[ t]. ? voiced[? ] may become a dental[ d] . since[ t] and[ d] are typically pronounced as dental stops anyway , words like ‘there’ and ‘dare’ can become homophones. ? [? ] pronounced as [? ] . This makes many Romanians pronounce ‘death’ and ‘that’ as homophones 1. 2 Micro-skills In Teaching English Pronunciation Referring to micro-skills in teaching pronunciation , professor Jeremy Harmer tries to give an answer to such questions ‘What a native speaker knows ? ‘and ‘What a language student should learn ? ’. Well , native speakers or even competent users of the language know how to say a word, that is how to pronounce it .
This knowledge comprises three areas : sounds , stress and intonation. On their own the sounds of a language may well be meaningless. If all words are made up of sounds , then all speakers of a language need to know the sounds if they are to understand what is said to them and be understood in their turn. When they use a word , native speakers know which part of that word should receive the heaviest emphasis. For example in the word ‘photograph ‘ not all the parts are of equal importance . We can divide the word into three parts :‘ pho‘ ,‘ to’, and ’ graph’ .
Competent speakers of the language will say the word like this: ‘ PHOtograph’, stressing the first syllable . The situation changes with the word of ‘ photographer’ , where the stress shifts evidently to the second syllable :’ phoTOgrapher ‘ . Stress in words also changes depending upon a word’s grammatical function : ‘perMIT ‘ is a verb but ‘PERmit ‘ is a noun . Native speakers of a language unconsciously know about stress and they know how to use stress to change the meaning of phrases and sentences and questions .
Closely connected with speech is intonation , which means the tune you use when we use when we are speaking , the music of speech . Intonation is a big indicator of involvement. If we tell what we think is a fascinating story and our listener says :’ How interesting . ‘, starting at a low pitch and dropping their voice on the ‘int ‘ of‘ interesting’ we will be fairly despondent since by their us of pitch and intonation they will have plainly told us that they did not think much about our story . High pitch and a small fall , on other hand would be much nicer , since that would indicate that our audience was fascinated by what we had to say .
Intonation is clearly important then and competent users of the language recognize what meaning it has and change the meaning of what they say through using it in different ways . Trying to give answer to the question ‘What a language student should learn ? ’ we found more aspects . The first aspect is phonics. Phonics refer to an instructional design for teaching children to read . Phonic involves teaching children to connect sounds with letters or groups of letters. It is linked with basic rules , alphabetic principle with spelling. English spelling is based upon the alphabetical principle , the idea that letters represent sounds .
For example the word ‘pot’ is composed of three letters , each representing a phoneme . Some letters in English regularly represent only sound . However the alphabetic principle is not sufficient to represent all of the spellings in English . Reading in English also requires understanding of additional patterns that do not follow the “one letter – one sound” principle . Another important aspect is teaching the learner the vowel phonic patterns . It consists of : •short vowels are the five single letters vowel: a, e , i, o, u. •long vowels are synonyms with the names of the single letter-vowels .
They are : [ ei ] , [ I] , [ ai ] , [ o? ] , [ ju ]. •schwa is the third sound that most of the single vowel spelling can produce . The schwa is an indistinct sound of vowel in an unstressed syllable, represented by the linguistic symbol [ ? ]. •closed syllables are syllables in which a single vowel – letter is followed by a consonant. •open syllables are syllables in which a vowel appears at the end of the syllable. The vowel will say its long sound . •diphthongs are linguistic elements that fuse two adjacent vowel sounds . The learner should pay attention also to consonant phonic patterns . It consists of: consonant diagraphs are those spellings where in two letters are used to represent a consonant phoneme . The most common consonant diagraphs are Techniques Used In Teaching English Pronunciation Different teachers who have studied this topic say that there are a lot of ways and of techniques used in teaching pronunciation . For example such teachers as Balbina Ebong and Martha Sabbadine from the British Council decided that a good method in teaching pronunciation is using songs . A teacher can use songs to focus on sounds . Sounds are the smallest unit from which words are formed and can be categorized as vowels and consonants .
As languages differ in their range of sound , students have to learn to “ physically “ produce certain sounds previously unknown to them . Learners can find sounds difficult to pick up out , and may not see the point in focusing on them . However , incorrectly pronounced sounds strain communication , sometime even changing a phrase’s meaning . Songs can help because they are authentic and easily accessible examples of spoken English .The rhymes in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds. We can use songs also to focus on words . on connected speech . There is another opinion of David F.
Dalton , that exercise is good in training pronunciation. It should be simple , accessible , fun and combine reception and production . Some students , usually adults , do feel embarrassed to pull ridiculous faces when practicing vowel sounds , but David F. Dalton has generally found that this soon passes and students enjoy the pronunciation work. Where possible , exercises should be communicative , and generate differences of opinion and disagreement of what was said / heard. The exercise allows clear practice in production and reception and gives concise feedback to individual learners , as o where problems lie in these areas and how to repair them . Often these are very simple physical questions such as not rounding the lips as in [u: ] in ‘fool ‘ which the teacher can help them to focus on . As teachers , we are not the best judges of the accuracy of our students’ pronunciation . We are accustomed to it and usually very tolerant , when in general , native speakers are not . The exercise , then helps us to be more aware of real problems learners have in their oral production and to help to correct them . Celce Murcia and Godwin suggest us several techniques in teaching pronunciation .
First there is “ listen and imitate/repeat” technique which was used in direct approaches and also the audio-lingual approach . Second there are tongue- twisters like “ She sells sea shell by the seashore. ” or Peter Piper picked a pick of peppered piper. Did Peter Piper pick a pick of peppered piper ? If Peter Piper picked a pick of peppered piper Where is the peppered piper Peter Piper picked? The third technique is suppose to be the technique of using lists of words as minimal pairs . e. g. syntagmatic: Don’tsit on thatseat . paradigmatic: Don’tslip/sleep on the floor.
A fourth technique that is used by first language acquisition research is the developmental approximation drill, where the developmental sequence followed by most L1 children becomes a way to get nonnative speakers to produce a problematic sound or sound quality . e. g. [w]—————— [r] [y]———————- [l] wed——————–red yet———————-let The fifth technique that is wide spread is the drilling of vowel shifts and stress shifts , something that was given by the early work in generative phonology . e. g. vowel shift [ay] — — – — — — – — — [I ] ible—————– biblical stress shiftPHOtograph—- — — — — -phoTOgraphy In fact what we have to do is to apply the most useful and usable of the old techniques along with the same new and innovative exercises suggested in work on teaching pronunciation. In “The Pronunciation Book “ of Tim Bowen and Jonathan Marks we find that in teaching pronunciation there is a big need to know all the sounds of English language. This is a chart showing the 44 phonemes of the variety of ‘standard’ British English that otherwise known as RP or ‘received pronunciation ‘. І: I ?u: I?? ?? ? ? ? ? ??? ?? ? ? p b T d?? K g f v? ? Sz ? ? mn ? h L r W j In correspondence to a standard model (RP) such a chart does not include phonetic variations on the basic 44 phonemes found in various British regional accent and other varieties of English. This chart is intended a general structural guideline. The 44 phonemes of English break down into 12 vowel sounds , 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants . Many teachers like to display a phonemic chart in their classrooms and to use it both to help in the teaching of sounds and to deal with pronunciation problems as they arise If for example a learner pronounces the word ‘village ‘ as ‘willage’ the teacher might point to the phoneme[ v] on the chart , thereby indicating to the learner where the pronunciation error lies . In addition , the chart can function as a “ pronunciation syllabus “ for the learners . It provides a visual representation of the sounds of English , and can thus help them with the aid of the teacher to recognize which sound they can already pronounce well, and more importantly to determine which sounds they need to work on .
Using a phonemic chart presupposes a need on the part of both teachers and learners to learn phonemic script . It is also a good deal more systematic and accurate than homemade phonetic transcriptions that take the learner’s mother tongue as the model for the sounds of English . It is suggested that teachers need to be sensitive to problems of overload , particularly at lower levels with learners whose mother tongue uses non-Roman script . Talking to learners about the importance of good pronunciation and explaining the function of phonemic symbols and the phonemic chart as well is extremely helpful.
We favor a gradual approach , introducing sounds and their symbols as they arise over a series of lessons , rather than presenting all the symbols in a single lesson . We typically introduce up to four sounds in a single lesson , beginning with the familiar symbols as [m] ,[ s] ,[ p] . We also introduce sounds in contrasting pairs , where we feel the difference in sound , quality is particularly important . Another wonderful technique in teaching pronunciation is using a tape – recorder . We may find it useful to tape pronunciation listening exercises for our learners .
This is particularly important when we wish to have our learners distinguish between vowel sounds , stress patterns or different intonation patterns. Thus when we say :’ Read the sentence aloud ! ’ , we may find it helpful to tape our reading beforehand . There are two big advantages to taping. Firstly , we can provide a constant and consistent model , secondly our learners can listen in their own time (perhaps in a self access centre or language laboratory , or even for homework ). Another role of the tape recorders is to record the learner own pronunciation .
This is a very effective way of giving them feedback on their own performance . If they hear the contrast between a model sentence read by the teacher and their own version of the sentence , this can help them in a number of ways . It can show them that they still need to improve . It can also make them aware of errors in their own performance . CHAPTER2 TEACHING ENGLISH SOUNDS We will probably need to help our learners become aware of what happens when they produce sounds in their own language or in English . It is not normally sufficient simply to repeat the sounds and expect learners to get it right through hearing alone .
Sometimes we will have to show or explain to them what happens when a particular sound is produced . We will also probably need to show them how to improve their pronunciation of the particular sounds that they are finding difficult . Celce Murcia and Godwin in “Teaching Pronunciation “ help us a lot by informing that English has 24 distinct consonant sounds that we can describe in terms of their place and manner of articulation and in terms of voicing – whether the vocal cords are vibrating ( voiced ) or not (voiceless ) . In order to represent each distinct consonant and introduce a few special symbols .
One of the best ways to appreciate the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is to put our fingertips on our Adam’s apple and alternate hissing like a snake[ssssssssssss ] and then buzzing like a bee[zzzzzzzzzz ]. When buzz like a bee w can feel the vocal cords vibrate : [z] is a voiced sound. But when we hiss like a snake , we feel nothing because the vocal cords are still:[s] is a voiceless sound . To demonstrate the place of articulation f a consonant sound , teachers use a variety of visual aids. A saggital section diagram of the human speech organs can be a useful aid in describing the points of articulation.
The manner of articulation describes what happens to the air stream as the sound is articulated . If the air stream gets blocked completely we refer to the sound as ‘stop’ sound . If the air stream is compressed and passes through a small opening we call it a ‘fricative’. If the sound begins like a stop and then is released like a fricative we call it an ‘affricative ‘. If the air passes through the nose instead of the mouth , we call the sound a ‘nasal ‘. If the air stream moves around the tongue in a relatively unobstructed manner ,we call the sound a ‘liquid ‘. And if the sound is very close to being a vowel , we call it a ‘glide’.
The English consonant sounds are as follows Sound example WAYS OF TEACHING PROSODIC FEATURES 4. 1 Teaching Intonation . Activities for Teaching Intonation We have been looking at different ways in which human sound is processed . The point to emphasize is that all this is dome in order to communicate , and when we communicate using sounds , we clearly do a good deal more than simply string allophones together to make up words. The message we convey depends just as much on how we say something as on what we actually say . The most obvious aspect of pronunciation is the articulation of specific sounds.
Thus , the proper name “Henry “ can be said to consist of a sequence of sounds , or segments ,transcribed as [ ‘henri ] . But this segmental transcription does not of course , tell us very much about the way this world might be uttered in any specific situation . So far we have established that intonation is used by speakers to convey information , mainly through choice of significant pitch variation . But what kind of information can be conveyed ? In Crystal (1987)six functions are listed : •emotional : expression of attitudinal meanings such as excitement , surprise , reserve . grammatical : marking of grammatical contrasts , such as chunking into clauses and sentences , or contrast between questions and statements information structure : marking of the distinction between what is already , known and what is new . For example if someone says : “I saw a BLUE car. ” , this presupposes that it is already known that a car is being talked about , and ‘blue’ is the new information . •textual : marking of the structure of larger stretches of discourse , such as the distinctive melodic shape which different paragraphs are given in news – reading . psychological : organization of discourse into units that are more easily perceived and memorized , for example the tendency to divide telephone numbers into rhythmical chunks. •Indexical : markers of personal identity , and of group membership; for example , members of certain occupation have distinctive ways of speaking ,such as preachers , sports commentators , street vendors , etc. It has been stated that there are four possible tune movements : Simple : – falling (moving downwards ) – rising (moving upwards ) Compound : – falling then rising rising then falling Again the use of gesture and the backboard can help the teacher indicate the rising or fallen pattern . Gesture : a sweep of the arm from high to low will indicate the falling tune (vice-versa for the rise) . The teacher should produce this gesture backwards – from right to left , as this will be the right way round – from left to right – for students . The blackboard : (the non-text stage ) 1. The teacher draws the parallel lines on the blackboard ; the top represents a high pitch , the bottom line represents a low pitch .
Then an arrow is drawn to indicate the direction of the intonation pattern It is also possible to indicate both stress and intonation at the same time (the text stage ) Once the learners are able to read English the teacher can use a sign system over the text , either on the blackboard or in a stenciled handout with exercises for pronunciation work . Brita Haycraft has pointed out the usefulness of such signs: They are a support for the students’ memory , they can isolate stress and intonation …they are neutral , common language , a code.
Signs are there to help and therefore must be flexible. When students first begin , by merely looking at lines drawn on the blackboard (without words ) they ‘hear ‘ the sentence and imitate it . Activities : When we teach our students we must understand what intonation is . It is the music of a language – the way the voice goes up and down . We need to make these general points about intonation : •Intonation is very important in expressing meaning , and especially in showing our feelings ( surprise , anger, disbelief , gratitude ) •However , intonation patterns are quite omplex , and it is better for students to acquire them naturally rather than try to learn them consciously . 1. A game-like activity – using reliant to set up a situation that would illustrate the difference in attitude . The teacher gives each student a small coin and asks them to respond ‘thank you ‘ , at the same time drawing on the blackboard : One student is then given a larger coin and encouraged to produce ‘ thank you ‘ on slightly higher pitch , and so on with increasing amounts of money . The differences in pitch are illustrated on the blackboard :
One student is then given a larger coin and encouraged to produce ‘ thank you ‘ on slightly higher pitch , and so on with increasing amounts of money . The differences in pitch are illustrated on the blackboard : The teacher can use other objects , such as chocolate , depending on the age level and interests of the class . 2. Mood-cards . Two faces are drown on cards , one indicating a bored , uninterested mood like this : The other like this : And these once introduced , act as aids to correction whenever the dull intonation pattern is produced.
These drawings can be very simple , or the more amusing cartoon-like drawing would be better . For younger learners they can also be given names such as : 3. Creating roles or enacting . One way of overcoming shyness and embarrassment is to have the pupils or students to adopt a role and act out a short sketch. For young learners this may quite simply entail having pupils walking towards each other and producing greetings : Mr. Happy: Hello . Mr. Grumpy : Hello Teaching English Rhythm and Rhyme . Activities As a general definition of the word ‘ rhythm ‘ , the Oxford English ictionary gives the following one : ‘ movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements ‘ . The list of possible movements is very long , and ranges from one heartbeat , the tick-tack of the clock , the sound of footsteps , fingers tapping , to waves beating on the shore or the change of the tides. It certainly seems a if our lives are pervaded by rhythm even though the rhythm is not necessarily there objectively , but may be something we impose . Activities : 1. Walking the rhythm Level : all Time : 10 – 15 minutes Aims : developing awareness of pace and rhythm
Materials: music to accompany walking and rhythmic texts , recorded if possible Preparation : 1. select of music to walk to. 2. make a recording if possible of a short poem or prose text in English and one in the students’ mother tongue . Procedure : ask the learners to walk round the room in pairs , with one leading , and the other trying to walk like the leader . The leaders should move as they like – stop , slow down , or speed up . After a maximum of minute ask the students to swap roles. After another minute , ask all the students to stop and discuss the way they felt , first in groups of four , then as class .
Then play the music and ask the students to walk to it . Then ask how easy or neutral it is for them to walk to the pace of music . Next play the recording of a short poem or read it and encourage students to move a part of their body (head , leg or arm )or to sway their whole body to the rhythm of the text. 3. Feeling The Rhythm Level: elementary and above Time : 5 minutes Aims: becoming aware of the rhythm of English Materials: a short poem or rhyme Preparation : find a short poem or rhyme which is easy to understand , preferably with repetitions .
Procedure : do this at the beginning of a lesson as warmer . The learners stand in circles of about 10 people . Ask them to take one step forward , swinging their arms , from behind their back to high in front of them and then step back , swinging their arms down . Say the poem or rhyme accompanying the rhythm with the movements . The students imitate you . When they have got the rhythm , proceed with the rest of your lesson . Suggestions for text : Icker backer , soldier cracker Icker backer boo Engine number nine Out go you ! Teaching Word Stress and Sentence Stress . Activities
In English we can use the word ‘stress’ to refer generally to the way we emphasize something ,or give it prominence . The term ‘stress’ is used in two different ways . One use is as a conventional label for the overall prominence of certain syllables over others . Used in this wider sense , stress does not correlate directly and simply with one feature as loudness , but represents the combined effect of several other factors besides . The second and narrower use is concerned with the way in which speakers actually achieve this impression of prominence , i. e. its physiological cause.
In this sense , stress refers to the muscular energy which goes into the production of a syllable . The smaller domain in which the contrast stressed and unstressed syllables is the word . The characteristic patterning of these two kind pf syllables is commonly called word ‘stress ‘ . What makes English word stress particularly difficult to cope with for foreign learners is what makes English word stress appear chaotic and without rules . English word stress is fixed in the sense that every word has its own stress pattern which is an important part of its identity . Activities : 1. Word stress
Level: al Time : about 5 minutes Aim : to develop personal and physical awareness of word stress Materials : recordings of pieces of music with different rhythms Preparation : prepare a list of words with the same stress pattern , including nonsense words . Procedure : brainstorm a number of rhythmic feelings with the class first . make a list of fields where rhythmic activities occur . Here are some examples : Nature : a summer breeze , an autumn gale , the waves of the sea , breathing , heartbeats . Sports : riding a hoarse , rowing a boat , cycling , running , swimming , tennis.
Ask the learners to sit comfortably , to close their eyes and breathe calmly . Tell them in a quiet voice that you are going to say some words . They should concentrate on the rhythm of the words , not the meaning and try to associate it with something personal . Ask them to complete the second part of the sentence such as :’ When I feel the rhythm of those words , it is as if …. ’ or ‘ The rhythm of these words make me think of …. ’. Quietly say the words you have prepared without stopping between them . repeat the list . 2. Sentence stress Level : elementary and above Time: three stages of 15-20 minutes . can be in separate lessons ) Aims : raising awareness of how stress affects the meaning of a sentence. Materials : rhymes and statements Preparation : The students need to know what word stress is , before doing this. Prepare a class set of two suitable rhymes at the students’ level such as “This is the house that Jack built. ” or “Boys and girls come out to play . ”Rhymes which contain several one-syllable words are the most suitable . Stage 1 Noticing stress Procedure : teach the class the first rhyme , ask them to clap the rhythm , or move any part of their body they like .
Ask the students how many syllables the words have . Remind them that two-syllable words have one syllable stressed more strongly than the other . Go through the text and , asking your students to say where they fee there is strong stress . Stage 2 Procedure : teach the class the second rhyme . Say the first stanza and ask them to repeat it. Check that they understand it . then write it on the blackboard . Ask them to say it while clapping the stressed syllables . For example : “ THIS is the HOUSE that JACK built . ” Ask a student to indicate the main stress on the board .
Draw your students’ attention to the fact that one word is stressed more strongly than the others . Ask some students to repeat the rhyme , clap it, walk it, putting the main stress on words . Stage 3 Practicing in conversations At this stage class practice is beginning to be more communicative . You can concentrate on sentence stress only , or you may want to combine it with intonation practice as well . Preparation : prepare a series of statements about your students , the school, their work place , current affairs , etc. at a level and on topics appropriate for the group .
Some should be true and some should be false . Procedure : ask the learners to show whether the statements are true or false by repeating them , replacing some words , and making careful use of stress . Ask them to prepare their own list of true or false statements . In pairs one student reads out one of their statements and the other students responds. In twos or threes , the students pretend that they are in a noisy place , for example in a railway station or busy street , or trying to talk on a bad phone line . One starts a conversation , another ‘ misunderstands ‘ and puts the stress on the wrong word /syllable .
The other student correct them by stressing the right word even more strongly . GENERAL CONCLUSIONS Now comes the time to draw some conclusions . It is important to mention that I found necessary to pay a special attention to several aspects concerning the “Ways of teaching pronunciation in TEFL “ . The pronunciation process seems to be a practical one but it can not be practiced by anyone without being aware of some theoretical notions concerning pronunciation. The first chapter contains information about the difficulties met in the process of teaching English pronunciation .
This process is not easy at all and it needs to be studied first. A teacher should know first the level of the learner , then to find out which are the difficulties. A very frequent difficulty is the difference between the English phonic system and the learners’ phonic system. In this case the teachers and the learners as well must study the differences between the ways of pronouncing special sounds. A speaker can have a wonderful grammar , a very well developed vocabulary , but he or she can be misunderstood by a native speaker or even by the teacher. We can ask what is the problem?
The answer to this question is that a bad pronunciation makes the speaker or the learner to make first of all a bad impression about himself or about herself , and secondly of course to be misunderstood . Also in this chapter I tried to show some micro skills and techniques used in the teaching pronunciation process. It is very important for a teacher to know what to teach , how to teach , when to teach and why to teach. It happens that the learners have no ideas why they need to be taught different things at different times and with different purposes.
For example when I was at school practice I tried to see this thing at every lesson. Pupils were already intermediate learners I would say , it was the 9th grade and practically they had a good pronunciation , but it was not perfect , and it is normal , to my mind. I observed that they had a good teacher in English who knew all these things and in such a way they got good pronunciation . In the second chapter I mentioned something about the sound system. A teacher should be aware of all the peculiarities of the English vowels and consonants.
Without it students or learners can not receive a good information about it and they are not able to become good teachers in their turn. For example if I did not receive this information when I was a beginner now I could never become a good teacher. The pronunciation process seems to be a practical one but it can not be practiced by anyone without being aware of some theoretical notions concerning pronunciation. The third and the fourth chapters are practical ones. Everyone knows that theory without practice is nothing, and I agree with this.
Practical part means exercises for different types of vowels ,consonants and diphthongs as well , different activities for teaching or better to say for practicing the English intonation ,word stress and sentence stress. This is one of the most important aspects in this process , I think. What I tried to do with the learners at school at this chapter was to practice with them intonation and word stress with the help of the tongue twisters. Actually this is all that I could in this domain. There are many other aspects in pronunciation I did not touch upon .
My suggestion would be to pay also a special attention to such aspects as developing pronunciation through games , developing the process of learning pronunciation by studying the weak and the strong forms in a sentence. A learner should be aware which syllables to stress and in what cases. It is rather difficult to do it because , practically there are no rules for this. The learner should feel the stress exactly as the native speakers do. In the end I would say , as a future teacher of English that a teacher must teach his students first of all the best pronunciation.
