Unit 6 Teaching Pronunciation

focus on individual sounds, especially those sounds that are difficultto learn.

Teaching Pronunciation

• 1The role of pronunciation in language learning.
  • Native language
    • Similarites of sound system
  • Exposure to English More or less focus on pronunciation
  • Age /learner's age:Critical Period Hyphthesis
    • 1.The hypothesis states that if human do not learn a foreign language before a certain age（perheps around puberty）, then due to changes such as maturation of the brain,it becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like a native speaker. 2.The goal of teaching pronunciation is simply to get the learners to pronunce accurately enough to be easily and comfortably comprehensible to other speakers. 3.The amount of exposure to English is another factor that determine if the students can acquire native-like English pronunciation.
  • Biological And Physiological Diffrermce
    • Better at imitating sounds/stress and intonation
• 2.The goal of teaching pronunciation
  • 1.Generally speaking 2.Ideal goal 3.Realistic goal
    • 1.Get learners to pronounce accurately enough to beeasily and comfortably comprehensible to otherspeakers
    • 2.Native-like pronunciation/
    • (1)Consistency: The pronunciation should be smooth and natural. (2) Intelligibility: The pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners. (3) Communicative efficiency: The pronunciation should help to convey the meaning that is intended by the speaker.
  • Realation For 3 Factors
    • 1.combine with each other 2.when ss try to be accurate in pronunciation,this is often done at the expense of onsistency.Speech produced in this way is not only unnatural but also uncomfortable to hear. 3.When trying to achieve consistency in pronunciation, students do not have to and should not sacrifice intelligibility. However, consistency and intelligibility are not necessarily enough in real communication.
• 3.Three aspects of pronunciation
  • sounds and phonetic symbols
  • Stress, intonation, rhythm.
  • Realation For 3 Factors
    • 1. Word stress determines how the letters are pronounced 2.Sentence stress makes it necessary to pronounce words differently from when they are read individually. 3.Intonation and rhythm also cause variation in the sounds of words.
  • HOW TO PRACTICE pronunciation
    • 1.practice makes perfect 2.students benefit from both mechanical practice and meaningful practice. 3.It is important to combine drilling pronunciation exercises with more meaningful exercises.
• 4.Practicing sounds
  • 1. Focusing on a sound
    • focus on individual sounds, especially those sounds that are difficult to learn.
  • 2. Perception practice
    • it is aimed at developing the students’ability to identify and distinguish between different sounds.Correct perception of sounds is vital for listening comprehension.
  • 3. Production practice
    • it is aimed at developing students’ ability to produce sounds. Production practice of pronunciation varies from mechanical imitation to production in meaningful context.
• 5.Practicing stress and intonation
  • Practicing stress
    • 1.word-level stress 2.Phrase-level
      • 1.Emphasize the importance of learning the stress as part of learning a word
      • 2.the most important thing in practising stress is making the ss aware of where to stress the word or phrase
        • Use gestures:indicate the stress by clapping hands movements as if conducting music
        • use the voice:raise the voice to indicate stress or done with exaggeration sometimes
        • use the blackboard: highlight the stress parts by unwriting them with coloured chalks or in different size
  • Practicing intonation
    • 1.intonation can greatly affect the intention of thes peaker's message; 2.Intonation is used by native speakers to express meanings in many subtle ways such as surprise, complaint, sarcasm,friendliness, threats, etc.
    • Three ways
      • 1.Hand or arm movement 2.rising/falling arrows; 3.draw lines.
        • 1.hand or arm movement to indicate thechange of chiintonation as if conducting music
• 6.Suggestion on Teaching Pronunciation
  • 1.use individual,pair and whole class work tocreate a pleasant,relaxed and dynamic classroom 2.use hands and arms to conduct choral pronunciation practice 3.move around the classroom when doing choral practice 4.vary the criteria of 'good'in pronunciation practice to give ss confidence 5.it is helpful to do articulation practice more than once 6.bring interest and variety to the practice of pronunciation e.g.asking ss to practise an expression in different tones to show anger.happiness,surprise.sadness,or excitement 7.the main criteria for good pronunciation are consistency.intelligibility and communicatice efficiency 8.do not rely on explanation:make full use ofdemonstration 9.Try to use visual aids