have most of it; then invite students to tell you what the sentence is and to mark up all
the pronunciation features (stress, intonation, silent letters and letters that are
introduced). Students can then practise reading the sentences.
You can also work on connected speech after a listening activity. After listening to a
recording, you can ask students to focus their attention on certain phrases. You can
either write the phrases on the board or dictate them slowly. Ask students to mark
stress (both word stress and sentence stress) and intonation on the phrases. They can
also mark connected speech. Students can then practise saying the phrases and
possibly compare what they say with the recording. Take short sections of the
transcript for this, 2 or 3 lines will be enough.
10.6 A final word on pronunciation
There are 2 basic rules to remember when teaching pronunciation:
After working on features of pronunciation, remember to correct students as you
would with any other errors both during the pronunciation lesson and in subsequent
lessons;
Students should listen to sounds before being asked to produce them themselves.
A lot of the work we do on pronunciation will be awareness-raising. We shouldn’t
expect our students to produce perfectly pronounced words all the time. Some
students don’t have a musical ear and/or just don’t hear the differences between
sounds. Even if they can hear the difference, they can’t always produce the different
sounds. If your students can’t produce the sounds correctly at least they will be aware
that a difference exists and be aware of what they are aiming for. A knowledge of
sounds will also help them understand spoken English.
I suggest that you work on pronunciation regularly. You can incorporate this in two
simple ways: by doing pronunciation work as a warmer or to fill a gap at the end of a
lesson, though not in every lesson in order to maintain variety. Secondly, this can be
achieved by incorporating pronunciation work into language presentations and
speaking and listening lessons.
70
Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
71
Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved
This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
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