This document provides guidance for teaching pronunciation to English language learners. It discusses the parts of the body used to make sounds, and recommends teaching phonetics gradually by introducing it when errors are noticed or in textbook lessons. Teaching techniques include exaggerating mouth movements, drilling sounds, and relating them to images. The document emphasizes making phonetics fun and explains concepts like vowel/consonant sounds, voiced/unvoiced sounds, stress patterns, and syllables. It also addresses when to pronounce 'ed' as /t/, /d/ or /Id/ depending on the preceding sound. Real examples are provided to demonstrate pronunciation rules.

1. Teaching Pronunciation
Teacher: Stephen Cloak

2. Native Speakers
• As native speakers we often don’t stop
and think about how we create sounds.
• Every classroom contains a phonetic
chart. But this chart doesn’t show what is
involved physically in the creation of a
single sound.
• The following image will briefly review this.

3. Parts of body used to make sounds
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Nose
Tooth ridge
Top teeth
Bottom teeth
Tongue
Front of tongue
End of tongue
Back of the tongue
Top lip
Bottom lip
Jaw
Throat
Vocal cords
Top of the mouth
Back of the mouth

4. How we teach Phonetics
The next question we must ask is; When do we teach phonetics?
1. I teach phonetics when we come across it in the text book.
2. When I hear my students make the same pronunciation error again
and again.
3. After the test to show students why they got the wrong answer
4. I don’t teach it, we skip the section in the book, it’s boring and
students don’t like phonetics anyway.
• The English File book contains a phonetic section in each unit. It is
designed to slowly build up the students awareness and
understanding of pronunciation.
• This is an effective way of teaching pronunciation but many students
dislike phonetics and would prefer to study grammar or vocabulary.
However pronunciation is essential for students in both their
speaking and listening.

5. Teaching Phonetics
• When we present phonetic
charts to our students the
symbols look strange and
mysterious.
• If we look at this chart of
Egyptian Hieroglyphics we
can get a sense of how our
students feel.
• For this reason, it is
important that the teacher
breaks the chart down each
time the phonetic chart is
used in class.

6. Drilling pronunciation
• When drilling pronunciation it
is best to stand in place that
you are visible to all
students.
• Be prepared to look a little
stupid, gestures are
important when teaching
phonetic sounds.
• The best place to start is with
the difference between vowel
sounds and consonant
sounds.

7. Vowel sound
• A Vowel Sound is a
sound we make when
we don’t obstruct the
air flow from the
mouth when we are
speaking.
• When drilling these
sounds it can be
helpful for students if
you exaggerate the
opening of your
mouth

8. Types of Vowel Sounds
• Remind students that there are three types
of vowel sounds.
• Long vowel sounds
• Short vowel sounds
• Diphthongs
• To make the drill more interesting you
should ask the students to identify these
different sounds on the chart.

9. Weak vowels
• For higher level students you can also point out
the weak vowel sounds. The English File book
has a tendency to focus only on the strong
sounds.
• Unstressed syllables often contain weak vowel
sounds.
• The most common weak vowel is / ə/. This is
the first vowel sound in about for example.
• The vowel /I/ is also sometimes weak, in the
second syllable of orange, for example

10. Consonant sound
• A consonant sound is a
sound we make by
obstructing the flow of air
from the mouth.
• When drilling these
sounds it can be fun for
students to put their
hands in front of their
mouths to identify the
voiced and unvoiced
consonant sounds.

11. Voice and Unvoiced
• Many pairs of consonant sounds are similar, but
one of them is voiced and the other is not.
• For example /d/ is similar to /t/ but /d/ is voiced
and /t/ is not.
• A consonant is voiced when there is a vibration
in the throat. Students can put their hands on
their throat to feel these vibrations.
• If the sounds is unvoiced they will feel the air
being expelled from their mouths.

12. Make it fun
• When I’m teaching
phonetics I try to make it
fun and interesting.
• Relating sounds to
images can help students
remember sounds better
for example the weak
vowel sound / ə/ is like
Frankenstein talking
• The U sounds /ʌ/ , /uː/ ,
/ʊ/ can be taught as the
Monkeys alphabet

13. Tools available:
Online Dictionary
• Cambridge dictionary
online is very useful tool
when teaching phonetics.
• When you search for a
word it will give you the
phonetic symbols in both
UK English and American
English.
• Beside the word you can
click on the icon to hear
the word in both accents.
• http://dictionary.cambridg
e.org/

14. Tools available:
Interactive phonetic Chart
• Another great resource is the
interactive phonetic chart on the
British Council website.
• Teachers can listen to each
sound and also three example
words containing the sound.
• It can be fun tool in class and
can also be useful when
comparing the Irish accent with
the British accent.
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.u
k/activities/phonemic-chart

15. Phonetic vocabulary
• When we are teaching students phonetics
we have to remember that some of this
vocabulary may be unfamiliar to them.
Such as the following
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Accent
Auxiliary verb
Emphasising
Minimal pair
Native speaker
Syllable
Phonemic symbol
Rhyme
Sentence stress
Sound
Stress pattern
Tone

16. Accent
• An accent is the way the
people in a certain area
pronounce words in a
distinct manner.
• For example, people in
Dublin and London both
speak English, but they
have different accents.
• Remind students that no
accent is better or worse,
they are just different.

17. Auxiliary verb
• An auxiliary verb is a verb which does not
have a meaning by itself; it helps the
grammar of the sentence.
• For example, in Do you like the music?
Do is an auxiliary verb.
• Auxiliary verbs are important when we are
teaching pronunciation because they are
only stressed when they carry meaning.

18. Emphasising
• Emphasising is speech is like underlining
in writing; we use it to make one word
stand out as more important than the
others.
• We can emphasise words by pronouncing
them louder, longer and/or higher.

19. Minimal pair
• If two words are
pronounced nearly the
same, but they have just
one sound different, they
are a minimal pair.
• For example ship and
sheep only the second
sound is different.
• This can cause confusion
in class. It is best
summarised in the video
Italian man in Malta.
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=m1TnzCiUSI0
Ship - Sheep

20. Native speaker
Jim is British
• If you are a native
speaker of a
language, that
language is your first
language, the
language you learnt
as a young child.
He is a native English
speaker

21. Phonemic symbol
• A phonemic symbol is
/ʃu:/
a letter which
represents a sound.
• For example, the first
sound in shoe is
represented by the
phonemic symbol
/ʃ /

22. Rhyme
• Two words rhyme if
they have the same
final vowel or vowel
and consonant
sounds.
• For example
– go rhymes with show
– hat rhymes with cat
The cat on the hat

23. Sentence stress
• Sentence stress is the
pattern of strong and
weak syllables in a
sentence.
• For example, the
sentence
• How do you do? Is
normally said…
• How do you do?

24. Sound
• A sound is a minimum
segment of the
pronunciation of a
word.
• For example, the
word this /ðɪs/ has
three sounds

25. Stress pattern
• The pattern of strong and weak syllables
in a word or sentence is its stress pattern.
You can represent a stress pattern visually
using big and small circles. For example,
the stress pattern of the word
pronunciation is oooOo.
• In the dictionary the stressed syllable is
normally represented using this dash
before the stressed syllable.

26. Syllable
• A syllable is a word or part of a word that
has one vowel sound.
• It may also have one or more consonant
sounds.
• For example, ago has two syllables.
• The first syllable is just one vowel sound.
The second syllable is a consonant sound
followed by a vowel sound.

27. Tone
• A tone is a way your
voice goes up or
down when you say a
sentence.
• This can change the
meaning of the
sentence.
Different types of tone
– Introducing tones
– Asking and checking tones
– Tones for asking for
information
– Tones in new and old
information
– Continuing and finishing tones
– Agreeing and disagreeing tones
– High tones

28. Pair Work
• How many sounds are
there in each word?
Write the order of
consonant sounds (c) and
Vowel sounds (v)
• Dog
• Rabbit
• Frog
• Gorilla
• Snake
• Bee

29. Answers
• How many sounds are
there in each word?
Write the order of
consonant sounds (c) and
Vowel sounds (v)
• Dog
CVC
• Rabbit
CVCVC
• Frog
CCVC
• Gorilla
CVCVCV
• Snake
CCVC
• Bee
CV

30. Using Phonetics to correct
common error.

31. When we use the ed ending
• The past simple tense and past participle of
all regular verbs end in -ed. For example:
Infinitive
• Work
Past simple
Worked
Past Participle
Worked

32. Pronunciation of ed ending
A question that most students ask is how can
I pronounce ed properly?
The answer is in 3 different ways
/ Id /
/t/
/d/
The correct pronunciation depends on the
ending of the verb

33. /t/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/t/
example
base verb*:
want
example
with -ed:
wanted
pronounce
the -ed:
/ Id /
extra
syllable?
Yes

34. Example Sentence
Joe wanted to go out last night.

35. /d/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Voiced
/d/
example
base verb*:
end
example
with -ed:
ended
pronounce
the -ed:
/ Id /
extra
syllable?
Yes

36. Example Sentence
After the concert ended we went home.

37. /p/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/p/
example
base verb*:
hope
example
with -ed:
Hoped
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

38. Example Sentence
• She got a C+ in her test, she had hoped
for a better grade.

39. /f/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/f/
example
base verb*:
laugh
example
with -ed:
laughed
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

40. Example Sentence
Everybody laughed at the funny joke

41. /s/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/s/
example
base verb*:
fax
example
with -ed:
faxed
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

42. Example Sentence
My Office faxed an important document to
the New York office yesterday

43. /ʃ /
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/ʃ /
example
base verb*:
wash
example
with -ed:
washed
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

44. Example Sentence
He washed his car yesterday.

45. /tʃ/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/tʃ/
example
base verb*:
watch
example
with -ed:
watched
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

46. Example Sentence
I watched a great movie last night

47. /k/
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Unvoiced
/K/
example
base verb*:
liked
example
with -ed:
liked
pronounce
the -ed:
/t/
extra
syllable?
no

48. Example Sentence
I liked to play with Barbie when I was
younger

49. /d/ = all other sounds
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All other sounds we use /d/
Admired
Banned
Banged
Carved
Caused
Damaged

50. Voiced
If the base
verb ends in
one of these
sounds:
Voiced
/ei/
example
base verb*:
All other
sounds
example
with -ed:
played
pronounce
the -ed:
/d/
extra
syllable?
no

51. Just for Advanced

52. Adjectives
• Some adjectives are formed using the past
participle form of the verb with the ed
ending.
For example
• I like home baked cakes.

53. Adjectives
The following -ed words used as adjectives are
pronounced with /Id/:
• Aged
/eɪdʒɪd/
• Blessed
/bles.ɪd/
• Crooked
/krʊk.ɪd/
• Dogged
/dɒɡ.ɪd/
• Learned
/lɜ.nɪd/
• Naked
/neɪ.kɪd/
• Wicked
/wɪk.ɪd/
• Wretched
/retʃ.ɪd/

54. So we say:
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an aged man /Id/
a blessed nuisance /Id/
a dogged persistence /Id/
a learned professor - the professor, who
was truly learned /Id/
• a wretched beggar - the beggar was
wretched /Id/

55. Real Verbs
• But when used as real verbs (past simple
and past participle), the normal rules apply
and we say:
• · he aged quickly /d/
• · he blessed me /t/
• · they dogged him /d/
• · he has learned well /d/ or /t/

56. Game
Ending
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accept
add
admire
admit
advise
afford
agree
alert
allow
amuse
analyse
announce
annoy
answer
apologise
T
D
ID
Ending
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appreciate
approve
argue
arrange
arrest
arrive
ask
attach
attack
attempt
attend
attract
avoid
appear
applaud
T
D
ID

57. Game
Ending
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•
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•
•
•
•
•
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•
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•
Accept
Add
Admire
Admit
Advise
Afford
Agree
Alert
Allow
Amuse
Analyse
Announce
Annoy
Answer
Apologise
T
D
ID
Ending
x
x
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Appreciate
Approve
Argue
Arrange
Arrest
Arrive
Ask
Attach
Attack
Attempt
Attend
Attract
Avoid
Appear
Applaud
T
D
ID
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x