Teaching Pronunciation to

Adult Learners of Foreign

Languages
Robin Worth, PhD
WISLI Pedagogy Workshop
June 8, 2011

Objectives for Todays

Workshop
1. Weigh the importance of accurate
pronunciation and reasonable expectations.
2. Consider various techniques for improving
students pronunciation.
3. Examine pronunciation materials from ESL.
4. Identify pronunciation issues in your TL;
develop some materials to address 1 or 2
issues.
5. Apply your materials and gain feedback.
6. Consider/refine/further develop your own
approach to teaching pronunciation.

Reflection/Discussion
Question
Can you think of an instance where
mispronunciation brought about
confusion, embarrassment, or some
other type of problem?
Example from Italian: How old are you?
(literally: How many years do you have?)
= Quanti anni hai?

Issues pertaining to
Pronunciation
Spectrum of Comprehensibility
Incomprehensible
Speaker

Native

L1 inventory (+ age, critical period) and

interference
Affect (embarrassment, nervousness, etc.)
Relationship between spoken language and
written language.
Phonological representation, spelling, etc.
Text: L1 vs L2 script

Brief intro/refresher on
phonology
SEGMENTS: (discrete sounds)
Vowels
Consonants
SUPRASEGMENTALS: (tone, stress, prosody,
nasalization, etc.)
The music of a language
Stress patterns emphasis and reduction
(rhythm)
Intonation pitch rise and fall (melody)

Linking, voicing, assimilation, aspiration, etc.

Vowels & Consonants

Lets take a 5-minute break. During
the break please think about vowel
and consonant sounds in your Target
Language (TL) that speakers of
American English tend to have
problems with.

Techniques for teaching

pronunciation
Awareness and consciousness
raising
Calling attention to pronunciation having
explicit conversations about its importance.
Day 1 preliminary chapter vs. continued
attention.
Coaching, modeling (you as the Proficient
L2 User), motivation.
Raised awareness tends to lead to more
careful listening, noticing.

Techniques: Exercises and

Activities
Mechanical and decontextualized
exercises
Examples:
sound formation
drills
repeating words and other forms of high-frequency
use and practice

Pros:
Intense focus on a sound or sound
Raises awareness

Cons:
Integrating with certain communicative
approaches to FL teaching and learning?

Techniques: Exercises and

Activities
Distinction activities
Typically involves listening for and/or producing
the differences among minimal pairs (bath vs.
beth)
Pros:
Can be more contextualized than drills and sound
repetitions
Integrates target sound with other sounds
Can be communicative to some extent

Cons:
Focus on a particular sound may be somewhat reduced.
Is meaning being negotiated?

Techniques: Exercises and

Activities
Gap and other meaning-based activities
Grids, maps and other partner/group activities
that rely on pronunciation, usually involving
minimal pairs, to solve a problem, or
communicate something.
Pros:
Quite contextualized
Integrates target sound with (all) other sounds
Can be very communicative

Cons:
Focus on a particular sound may be very reduced.
Is meaning being negotiated?

Techniques: Exercises and

Activities
Readings, recitations or impromptu
language production
Can be recorded or done face-to-face.
Recordings can be submitted or used for self- or
peer-evaluation.
Material can be prepared (practiced) or unprepared
(on the spot).
Can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify
pronunciation problems, or as an evaluated activity.
Examples:
Lists of words, a paragraph or other passage, that
contains examples of one or more pronunciation-related
elements of focus.
Responding to a prompt, such as an opinion question,
that will elicit certain types of language, sounds, etc.

Techniques: Exercises and

Activities
Readings, recitations or impromptu
language production
Pros:
Can be very mechanical to quite meaningful.
Can potentially integrates target sound(s) with (all)
other sounds and other features of language
(vocabulary, grammar, etc.)
Allows for individualized diagnosis and/or
evaluation.

Cons:
Time-consuming, though doing them regularly
reduces time needed.
Recording and submitting requires technology.
Is meaning being negotiated?

Materials
ESL industry
Different pronunciation features, but
the types of activities may be useful.
Inspiration for materials
development.

Small group work

same / similar languages
Identify relevant problem sounds for your
language(s).
Share tricks/techniques you used or heard of
for teaching these sounds.
Together, develop a brief and simple activity
or lesson for one of your problem sounds to
present to the rest of the class. Youll need to
choose a reporter to present your activity.
You wont actually teach this lesson /
activity, you will simply describe it to the
others.

Exercise Sharing / Reporting

Reporters: Dont teach the activity,
describe it.
Audience: in the interest of time,
please offer any constructive
feedback in writing to the activity
creator(s).

Lunch Break
We will reconvene at 1 pm.
During your lunch break, you may
want to consider how you might
improve or extend the activity you
developed.

Suprasegmentals
Intonation
Example: the Music of English
Excuse me. Wheres the bank?

Suprasegmentals
Rhythm and stress patterns:
Rubber band exercise
Emphasizing content words
What are you studying?
Economics. What about you?

Indicating stressed syllables

What are you studying?

Suprasegmentals
Contractions and Reductions
Careful speech vs. quick speech
What are you studying? vs. Whaddya
studyin?

Typically stressed for receptive, not

necessarily productive, purposes.

Suprasegmentals
Assimilation
The sound at the end of one word
blends into the sound of the beginning
of the next word
Hot potato = hoppotato.

Suprasegmentals
Aspiration
The burst of air accompanying certain
consonant sounds. Many consonants can
be aspirated or unaspirated, and in
certain languages, these are separate
phonemes.
Example: Where do you /p=/ark?

American English speakers tend to use

heavy aspiration.
Candle/tissue/hand exercise.

Suprasegmentals
Linking (usually the end sound of one
word to the beginning sound of the
following word).
Example: when the vowel sounds /iy/,
/ay/ or /ey/ link with a following vowel,
the vowel sounds are connected by the
off-glide /y/.
We agree: Weyagree.
I often say a lot: Iyoften sayya lot.

Activities for
Suprasegmentals
Same categories as the segments,
but focusing on these features.
Paradox: suprasegmentals are often
MORE impactful on comprehensibility
than segment issues, but are also
HARDER to learn.

Small group work

same/similar languages
Create another pronunciation mini-activity,
focusing on a vowel, consonant or a
suprasegmental.
Make sure your mini-activity can be done in
5 minutes or less.
After the break, we will regroup into small
groups of dissimilar languages, and you
will practice teach your mini-activity to
your new group.
Afterwards, you will reflect and your
students will give you feedback, which
you will report to your original group.

Feedback on your practice

teaching
Students let the teacher know
how it went for you.
what might have been done differently.

Teachers reflect on
whether it went as you predicted,
what any problems were that you or the
students encountered.
how it could be improved.

Return to small groups of

same/similar languages
Compare the feedback you received
on your activity:
How did it go?
How did students do?
What reflections do you have?
What feedback did students give?
How might you improve this activity?

Final activity
Groups can continue to collaborate
on developing activities, materials,
etc.
Robin is available for consultation,
feedback to those who are
interested.

Questions?
Robin Worth
raworth@wisc.edu

This powerpoint presentation will be

available online for downloading on
the SASLI website.
Thank you!