This document discusses reasons for teaching pronunciation when learning English as an additional language. It is important for intelligibility so people can communicate effectively in English globally. Approaches to teaching pronunciation include intuitive-imitative, which uses exposure to the language, and analytic-linguistic, which raises awareness through instruction. It is best to integrate pronunciation into listening and speaking lessons and focus on larger units of speech rather than isolated sounds. Techniques include description, listening activities, and communicative practice. The goals are to promote intelligibility and ensure messages are understood.

1. TEACHINGTEACHING
PRONUNCIATIONPRONUNCIATION
WHY, WHAT, HOWWHY, WHAT, HOW

2. Your learning experience?
• THINK ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS ENGLISH LEARNING
EXPERIENCE
• What percentage of instructional time was devoted to
pronunciation?
• How would you rate the quality of your teachers’ pronunciation
of English (good, fair, poor)?
• Which techniques for teaching pronunciation did your teachers
use?
• What type of feedback did you recieve regarding your
pronunciation?
• What else contributed to your learning the pronunciation of
English? (at and outside school)

3. WHY TEACHING PRONUNCIATION
• English is the major lingua franca
globally.
• More and more people need to use
English for social, educational, and
professional reasons in all kinds of
contexts, locally and internationally.
• It is essential that people who use
English to communicate have a high level
of intelligibility. (Celce-Murcia et al,
1996)

4. HOW: APPROACHES TO PRONUNCIATION
TEACHING
• INTUITIVE-IMITATIVE:
pronunciation is acquired as a result of
exposure and interaction in an
environment where the target language
is spoken.
• ANALYTIC-LINGUISTIC :
pronunciation is learned through
instruction in order to raise awareness

5. LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS AND
PRONUNCIATION
∼ Grammar translation
∼ Direct method
∼ Audiolingual method
∼ Silent way
∼ Community language learning
∼ Total physical response
∼ Communicative approach

6. • Teaching pronunciation within the communicative
framework means guiding learners to experience
speech as transfer of a message from one person
to another. Doing this helps learners to think
about their pronunciation as communication,
rather than as a classroom exercise, and to focus
on their listener’s perception rather than on their
own production. (Celce-Murcia et al., 2001)

7. Aims
• TO PROMOTE INTELLIGIBILITY (a
high amount of understandable
utterances)
• TO ENSURE COMPREHENSIBILITY
(meaning of the message is clearly
understood) (Jenkins, 2002)

8. WHAT ASPECTS OF THE ENGLISH
PRONUNCIATION TO TEACH?
• PHONETICS vs PHONOLOGY
• SEGMENTAL vs SUPRASEGMENTAL
• LINGUA FRANCA CORE LANGUAGE:
the pronunciation features that can
cause interference in international
communication contexts. (Jenkins
2000)

9. Lingua franca core
• Vowel quantity: the distinction between long and short vowels is
more important than exact vowel quality.
• Phonetic realisations of consonants: some such approximations
may lead to unintelligibility.
• Consonant cluster simplification: consonant deletion to simplify a
cluster affects intelligibility considerably.
• Prominence and weak forms: teaching should focus on achieving
correct prominence on stressed syllables, rather than on weak
forms or schwa.
• Tone groups: failing to use tone groups to divide the stream of
speech into manageable, meaningful chunks has a serious effect on
intelligibility for all listeners.
• Nuclear/contrastive stress: putting prominence on the wrong word
in an utterance, will direct the listener’s attention to the wrong
place, leading to confusion.

10. • What really works? Pronunciation teaching
works better if the focus is on larger chunks
of speech, such as words, phrases and
sentences.
• Pronunciation lessons work best if they
involve the students in actually speaking,
rather than in just learning facts or rules of
pronunciation.
• Learning pronunciation requires an enormous
amount of practice, especially at early
stages.

11. Good teaching principles?
* Setting realistic goals
* Integrating pronunciation to listening
and speaking skills practice
* Being student-centred
* Helping learners become self-reliant

12. TEACHING STRATEGIES
• DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS: phonemic
charts, minimal pairs, transcriptions,
kinesthetic activities.
• LISTENING DISCRIMINATION: listening
for meaning, listening for pronunciation.
• CONTROLLED PRACTICE: drills, repetition,
shadow reading, reading aloud, role plays.
• COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICE: discussions,
speeches, conversations, problem solving.

13. ASSESSING PRONUNCIATION
• Diagnostic evaluation: identifying
students’ pronunciation needs.
• Ongoing feedback: growing awareness
on progress and focus on improvement.
• Self-monitoring.
• Peer feedback.
• Teacher’s feedback.
Celce-Murcia et al, 2001

14. LEARNING STRATEGIES
• COGNITIVE: memory strategies, practising
naturalistically, formally practising the sounds and
rhythm, analysing patterns.
• METACOGNITIVE: setting goals, planning, self-
monitoring, looking for opportunities to speak/
listen to English outside classroom.
• SOCIO- AFECTIVE: asking for help, cooperating,
peer-assessment, lowering anxiety.

15. Learners’ characteristics that may
affect the process of learning :
• Personality traits, self consciosness,
self image (identity)
• Overdemanding attitude
• Physiological problems: articulators
• Cognitive skills: memory, a “good ear”

16. Key points in pronunciation
teaching
* Perception and Production
* Practice and patience
* Relaxing atmosphere, confidence
building, awareness raising
* Focus on communication

17. YOUR TASK!
A- Choose a textbook and analize
the pronunciation activities
presented in terms of purpose
and interaction.
B- Design a lesson integrating
pronunciation into language
teaching.

18. Bibliography
• Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin (1996)
TEACHING PRONUNCIATION. A
Reference for Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages.
Cambridge:CUP
• Celce-Murcia, Marianne (2001) TEACHING
ENGLISH AS A SECOND OR FOREIGN
LANGUAGE. United Kingdom:Heinle-
Heinle.