NEW DIRECTIONS AND TIPS FOR TEACHERS.docx

1. NEW DIRECTIONS AND TIPS FOR TEACHERS
Over the years, styles of language teaching have changed greatly, and the same is true
of teaching pronunciation. In some time periods, teaching pronunciation has been
considered important, while other times it hasn’t been given much attention at all. It
seems more practical, though, to realize that no single aspect of pronunciation can
stand on its own. Our students can benefit from learning about both individual sounds
and musical aspects of pronunciation, and we need to find a balance between these
two. Choose methods and activities that combine both aspects of pronunciation so that
the combination works best for you and your students.
To be able to teach pronunciation better, we summarize what you need to know.
● Facts about pronunciation: How speaker’s mouths move when they produce
the sounds of language, and how word stress, rhythm, connected speech, and
intonation work.
● How to predict the kind of problems your students might have with
pronunciation and why they happen.
● Ways to teach pronunciation: adapt your method to fit learners’ needs, and to
help them practice effectively, and to overcome their problems (Celce-Murcia
et.al. 2010).
You also need to know these basic principles of teaching pronunciation:
● Include more than just repeat after me. Having students listen to a recording or to
the teacher’s voice and repeat is a useful part of the pronunciation lesson, but by
itself, it is not enough.
● Encourage students to use more than just one of their senses, which is more
effective anyway. We can use many different ways of learning – sight, sound,
and movement – to help students understand and remember better.
● Keep lessons practical. For most students, even adults, theory and technical
explanations are hard to understand and are easily forgotten. Simple, concrete

2. demonstrations followed by lots of practice produce better results. Lessons need
to fit our student’s level of understanding.
● Include communicative practice whenever possible. Students need to work
toward using their new pronunciation in real speech. During class, we can help
them practice activities that are similar to real communication.
● Train students to become independent and autonomous learners. Our students
won’t be with us forever. Someday they’ll be facing pronunciation puzzles on
their own. If we can help them build up their own skills in listening, imitating, and
monitoring their own pronunciation, it will be a big help to them in their future
learning.
Finally, we reiterate key points in these modules.
1. Pronunciation teaching must address issues on oral fluency and at the same time
address students’ accuracy
2. That such teaching should extend beyond the isolated word or sentence level to
encompass the discourse level as well
3. That it should be firmly grounded on communicative language teaching practice
4. That it must take into account variation in learning style by appealing to multiple
learner modes
5. That it should include areas of socio-psychological concern not previously
thought of to belong to the realm of pronunciation such as ego boundaries and
identity issues
6. That it should be open to influences from other disciplines, such as drama,
speech pathology, neurolinguistics
7. That the quality of instruction and feedback can benefit from instructional
technology
8. That it should recognize the autonomy and authority of the students, allowing for
student-centered classrooms and self-paced or directed learning.