Unit 6 Unit 6 Teaching Pronunciation

Teaching aims able to understand the role of pronunciation in language learning able to know the goal of teaching pronunciation able to know what aspects of pronunciation we need to teach able to know how to help the students to improve pronunciation

Discussion on the role of pronunciation Some people claim that students do not need to learn pronunciation because pronunciation will take care of itself as the students develop overall language ability; Others assert that failure in pronunciation is a great hindrance to language learning. What do you think?

Task 1 The following are assumptions about pronunciation in English learning, decide if you agree with them or not, and give the reasons.

Whether pronunciation needs special attention or focus in language teaching depends on many factors, especially learners factors. Chinese learners of English need a certain degree of focus on pronunciation.

Phonetic rules introduced at a suitable stage are helpful for students,but should be avoided at the beginning,especially for young students. Stress and intonation are as important as the sound themselves and should be taught at the very beginning.

The goal of teaching pronunciation Generally speaking,learners of English as a foreign language cannot acquire native-like pronunciation,why?

Critical Period Hypothesis A hypothesis proposed by linguists which states that if humans do not learn a foreign language before a certain age (perhaps around puberty), then due to the change such as maturation of the brain, it becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like native speaker.

The amount of exposure to English determines if the students can acquire native-like pronunciation. Due to biological and physiological differences, individual students have different phonetic ability.

. 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.

Aspects of pronunciation Sounds Phonetic rules Stress Intonation rhythm

How to practice pronunciation? Two kinds of practices: Mechanical practice: to focuses on individual sound to became automatic without thinking. Meaningful practice: to practice sounds in words,sentences or language use.

Practicing sounds Fostering on an individual sound [  ] [ð] [∫] [З] [ts] [dz] [tr] [dr]

Discussion (Task 4 on page 95 in the textbook)

Perception practice: It is aimed at developing students’ ability to identify and distinguish between different sounds. Activities such as:

using minimal pairs Which order. same or different. Odd one out. Completion.

Production practice: It is aimed at developing students’ ability to produce sounds. Activities such as:

Listen and repeat. Fill in the blanks Make up sentences. Using meaningful context. Using pictures. Using tongue twisters.

Practicing stress and intonation word-level stress; phrase-level stress or sentence-level stress. (Practice Task 6,7on page 99)

Ways to practice stress Use gestures. Use the voice. Use the blackboard

Practicing intonation Using hand or arm movement to indicate change of intonation. Using rising or falling arrows Drawing lines to mark change of intonation.

Further suggestions Use individual, pair, group and whole class practice formats to create a pleasant,relaxed, and dynamic classroom. Move around the classroom when students are doing the choral practice. Vary the criteria of “good” in pronunciation practice to give students confidence.

Bring interests and variety to the practice of pronunciation. For example, asking students to practice an expression in different tones to show anger, happiness, surprises, sadness, or excitement, etc. Do not rely on explanation. Make full use of demonstrations, and try to use visual aids such as looking at the mouth and imitating, gestures, nodding and hand movements.

Key points What are the goals of teaching pronunciation? What is perception practice? What is production practice: How do we practice stress and intonation?

Micro-teaching Practice Choose one from the following Teaching a sound Perception practice Production practice Practicing stress Practicing intonation