Teaching Ideas

Slipping Pronunciation into the Regular Class

Judy Gilbert
Author

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

In an ideal English curriculum, all students would have a class dedicated to pronunciation/listening comprehension. They would get systematic instruction and adequate practice in the most useful concepts and they would learn how all of these concepts are interrelated through the rhythm and melody of the spoken language.

So much for the ideal. In real life, teachers typically have to squeeze pronunciation into their classwork by sheer cunning. And because time is so limited, rather severe decisions have to be made about what's really important, leaving everything else for some later time. This prioritizing is rather in the nature of Emergency Room triage, but I think it's the only practical approach.

What should the priority items be? For some years I've been asking this question of colleagues, including those familiar with teaching English in Japan. With the requirement that each topic must meet a standard of both crucial utility, and also teachability, following is my short list of four crucial concepts.

You will probably notice that some traditional topics are missing – like voicing distinctions, aspiration, elaborations on intonation (especially as based on emotional meaning), and many familiar sound problems. The reason is that these topics don't meet the criteria of highest priority. They can be taught later if there is (miraculously) more time available.

General Approach
If the concept has been taught before, you need only reinforce it in a few minutes during the main lesson. If the concept is new, you will have to devote 10 or 15 minutes to an initial presentation. This is not ideal, but it's realistic. The small lessons below include an introductory lesson on the concept, and then suggestions for reinforcement using regular texts. If you keep the teaching goals in mind, you should be able to find opportunities in whatever book you're using.

CONCEPT 1. JUST A FEW CRUCIAL SOUNDS
The Japanese language doesn't allow many final consonants and, unfortunately, final consonants are often crucial for grammatical meaning in English. So, on a triage basis, I would just focus on the ends of words and resolutely ignore other mistakes. Otherwise you will find yourself back into absorbing all available time with minimal pair drills. The really crucial sounds are /d/ or /t/, /s/ or /z/ and /l/. (But don't spend time on the voicing distinction – there isn't enough benefit for the cost in time at this point.)

Considering the time constraints, the most useful phonological concept about sound distinctions is the difference between stops and continuant. Students must learn to recognize the distinction because of its significance for listening comprehension. These sound cues go by very fast in normal spoken English – mostly because auxiliary verbs are generally said as contractions. If students can learn to focus on these particular final sounds, they are on the way to getting the general principle of hearing and using final consonants.

Examples of grammar cues:
Tense: He's gone. / He'd gone. I'll cut it./ I'd cut it. We care. / We cared.
Singular/Plural: book/books (or third person singular)
Question words: "Where? / What?

Presentation Technique
1. Say the word "bus"
2. Continue the final sound as you march back and forth, until you run out of air.
3. Ask students to try it with you.
4. Say the word "but," throwing your palm up in a Stop! gesture (don't release the air, but hold your tongue in the stop position). The air can't get out because it's stopped by the tongue pressed all around the toothridge.
5. Have students try alternating /s/ and /t/ sounds until they can feel the contrast.
6. Put this on the board:
English stops: P T K B D G
English continuants: All other sounds

(Affricates like the first sound in "chip" and "judge" are combinations of stops and continuants. /tS/ and /dZ/, but this is an unimportant detail unless some student asks)

In the Regular Class
Any time you see a word that begins with a vowel, look to see the final sound of the word before. Use this pair of words to practice linking. A major advantage of practicing sounds in a linking position is that difficult final sounds become initial sounds and are likely to be easier for students to say.

Ask students to practice final continuants by saying the word before and slowing down the link, as in "an n n egg" or "tell l l all the news", or "burger r r and fries". For stop sounds, the words must be said together, as in "Stopall that noise!" or "Thankyou."

Using the Class Text - Fifty Fifty (page 2)
This grammar exercise has a box showing What in the first column, is/are in the next column, and name?/names? in the last column so that students can practice putting together a question using these elements (e.g. What is his name?/What are their names?) Another box gives the same type of information for Where, do/does, you/they/he/she, and live? (e.g. Where do they live?/Where does he live?)

After some practice with these sentences, the pronunciation element can be inserted by asking them to do it again, but this time focus mostly on the stop/continuant difference between Where and What.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

<<Back Number | Top | Recent Issue>>