Why is English pronunciation so difficult to pin down for EFL students? This presentation is designed to explain the phonetic irregularities inherent in English this is and to demonstrate how musical activities can aid pronunciation woes in the classroom.

1. with Dante Cuevas
Adapted from the talk
“Music for pronunciation”
given on June 29th 2012
Speaker’s notes are in pink

2. • The nature of English sounds
• The pronunciation benefits of music
• Examples of music activities that enhance
pronunciation

3. How would you pronounce
the following word?
Without prior reference it is often
difficult to tell how to pronounce a
new word .
“It’s unfortunate that dark cars always become
inanimate.”
As you can tell by reading the sentence above out loud, the English language is riddled with
phonetic anomalies like connected sounds, reduced sounds as well as a multitude of vowel
and consonant variations that can leave L2 learners puzzled when trying to figure out the
correct pronunciation of a new word. In comparison with other languages (like Spanish)
English pronunciation is difficult and inconsistent. Why is this so?

4. The English language was first written in
the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc runic alphabet, later
(circa 7th century AD) the Roman alphabet was
adopted and over centuries all the original
characters ended up being absorbed and
replaced by Latin script.
This creates the basis for English’s phonetic inconsistency for in
adapting a Germanic tongue into a Latin alphabet all sorts
of phonetic maneuvers were required that left English
without the benefit of across-the-board pronunciation rules.
To further complicate things, the English language
was subsequently further enriched by the Old
Norse and Old Norman (French dialect) languages
to make it a truly eclectic tongue. Image taken from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index.shtml

5. With this all this complexity in the English
language how can we aid our students
towards great pronunciation?

6. In a study done by the University of Minnesota with 71 secondary
students, 2 groups were studied, one group had previous
musical training the other did not. The group with musical
training showed significantly less production and discrimination
mistakes.

7. A study done by the University of Reading with adult L2 learners
revealed a numerical correlation between the ability to perceive:
• Musical rhythm & Intonation
• Musical Pitch & Phonetic Pitch
• Note duration & Vowel
lengthening/shortening

8. In another study done by Appalachian
State University, a positive correlation
was found between:
Pitch perception
and good pronunciation.

9. • Less pronunciation mistakes
• Easier ability to detect the vocal subtleties
• Easier to imitate natural intonation

10. • The prince of Paris
• Musical Puzzles
• Limericks
• Educational rap
Because English has such a diverse phonetic history,
it is important to reinforce pronunciation with
music, for in English music we can naturally find
intonation structures as well as all the other
phonetic variables so important to proper
pronunciation. We will now go over some
particularly effective pronunciation enhancing
activities.

11. The Prince of Paris lost his hat
Some say this and some say that
I say you Sir Here is a game that helps with
intonation
Who Sir me Sir?
Yes Sir you Sir
No Sir not I Sir
Who Sir then Sir?

12. A canner exceedingly canny
One morning remarked to his granny:
“A canner can can
Any thing that he can
But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”
Carolyn Wells
Limericks provide a
great, rhythm-based
platform for
pronunciation
development

13. Our novels get longa and longa
Their language gets stronga
and stronga
There’s much to be said A wonderful bird is the
For a life that is led pelican
In illiterate places like Bonga His bill can hold more than
H. G. Wells his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I’m damned if I see
how the helican
My firm belief is, that Pizarro Dixon Merritt
Received education at Harrow -
This alone would suffice, Funny limericks work well
To account for his vice, in the classroom
And his views superstitiously narrow.
Aldous Huxley

14. These songs are a recent
find that I wanted to
share because they are
great for developing
proper diction.

15. “Rapping “ imposes a set of conditions on
• Songs the brain that fuse the linguistic, the musical
and the creative aspects of language.
• Freestyle
This activity allows for vital language circuits to be
built that greatly aid with intonation and delivery.
Use educational rap videos, let your students
write their own raps or even let them “freestyle”
(improvised rap off of a beat).
Class idea:
Have students (in groups or alone) write their
own raps on a class-relevant topic and put on a
def talent show!

16. To reap full phonetic benefits from
music, regular use is required. One
effective way is to incorporate it into
your warm up.
• Daily warm-up practice
This is just a great way to start a
class because you get your
students into an entirely different
state, you warm up their English-
pronunciation muscles and you
get their linguistic circuits going as
well!

17. English lacks an across-the-board phonetic structure
Music can:
• ease and facilitate pronunciation woes
• enliven your classes and
• develop your students’ mental-language circuits in novel ways.

18. Many thanks for stopping by, feel free to check out more
interesting content freely available on this site.
I would love to hear any comments or ideas you may have
related to this topic, to comment just look below!
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