The aim of this magazine is to provide educators with tips, skills, activi-

ties, and strategies to increment the impact of learning in the classroom. You

will come across many new ideas that you can incorporate in your classroom

with your ESL students. Many tips will be found that can assist learners with

pronunciation and many strategies that can be used to teach short, long vow-

els, consonant sounds, and the pronunciation of the language in general.

Along with all these fantastic ideas, we also provide the instructions, materi-

als needed, and the type of learning strategy that can be used. Being that it is

important to incorporate the different learning styles in teaching pronuncia-

tion this magazine also provides articles by scholars who have dedicated

time to the craft of pronunciation. Many methodologies will be mentioned

throughout the article as well. To conclude this introduction we hope this

magazine helps you become a better educator and we hope that these ideas

allow you to create a meaningful impact on your learners. Enjoy!

To the reader……………………. 2

Teaching Pre-School………….. 5

Pronunciation practice through

Singing…………………………. 10

Teaching Elementary?..............12

Methods & their initiators…….18

7 tips for pronunciation……….22

Teaching High School?........... 26

Lego time

Target sound: /ӕ/ ; /Ʌ/ Learning style: Kinesthetic

Level: High Beginners Personality: Active, coop-erative

Materials: Legos with words that begin with the target sound, block with different words, block without words and envelopes. Objective: Recognize when the target sound is used through an interactive activity that will promote group work. Procedure:

Each student must have an envelope with a block inside. The colors of the blocks must be repeated so the students can find their groups later.

Ask the students to write their names on the envelope The students will go to check which color of block they

have in the envelopes and according to the color they will make the group

Assign a sound to each group

Explain to your students that they have to look for blocks with words that start with the target sound. At least three or two per student

When the students are in group they will have to create a sentence or short story with the words they chose

At the end each group must present the results

Note: if a group builds the symbol of the target sound with the blocks after they finish with the story, they will win a surprise.

Same or different?

Target sound: /I/, /i/ Learning style: Auditory

Level: Beginning Personality: Active

Materials: three words per student, two posters to divide the class in same or different. Objective: discriminate the target sounds (reception and production) Procedure: Divide the classroom in different and same with

the posters

Distribute three words per student

One student stands in front of the class a say two words, if both words are the same the students should run to that side of the classroom. In case they are different, the students should run to the opposite side.

Notes; The last student to the arrive to the correct side

of the classroom must stop playing until the next round

The length of the round is established by the teacher.

“F” Song

Target sound: /F/; /V/ Learning Style: Auditory

Level: Kindergarten-2nd grade Personality: Objective: To have students listen to the “F” song which contain words with the “F” consonant. Students will be able to distinguish words with the “F” sound that are commonly mistaken for the “V” sound. (Example: Fan vs. Van). Materials:

Speakers Print out with lyrics (this depends on the level of reading in the

class) If possible, this activity can be performed outside of the class-

room. If not then you can have the class sit in a circle. Images with the key words of the “F” song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKHEzr0HUeo

Instructions: Have the students sit in a circle. (To avoid any fooling around you

can have them set in boy girl order.) Explain that you and the students will be singing a song today per-

taining to the consonant “F.”

Play the song through one time so that the students can hear the key words.

After doing so, you and the students will sing the song together. (If the class level is adequate enough to read, then go ahead and hand out the printed lyrics for the song so that the students can highlight the words they hear as they sing along together.)

If available use the images to create a more enthusiastic feel to the environment. You will have images with pictures of the key words with the “F” sound. Hand some images out to certain stu-dents. The students that don’t receive an image with the “F” sound, they will be given images with the “V” sound. Students will listen to the song and they will raise their image in the air if they hear the sound. If a student with a “V” image is raised we stop the song and have the students talk about why they think that this “V” image is incorrect.

When sounds are pronounced incorrectly communication can become very difficult.

At times it can also affect the meaning of what is trying to be said. Songs allow stu-

dents to practice pronunciation. This allows the students to enjoy learning while ac-

tually providing a remedy for their pronunciation. Songs provide examples of au-

thentic, memorable and rhythmic language. They can be motivating for students

keen to repeatedly listen to and imitate their musical heroes. For example, songs

help focus on certain aspects of pronunciation such as:

Using songs to focus on sounds

Using songs to focus on words

Using songs to focus on connected speech

Utilizing songs to focus on different sounds

Sounds are just a mere portion of what words are made up of. Therefore we cate-

gorize these sounds as vowels and consonants. They can become difficult for

any language learner and as languages differ in their range of sounds, students

have to learn to 'physically' produce certain sounds previously unknown to

them. When this is not done learners will forget to practice on those sounds

they struggle

with creating a higher possibility of having issues with communication. As we know

if when a sound is not pronounced correctly it can affect the meaning of what is actually

trying to be said.

How songs can help

Songs are authentic and easily accessible examples of spoken English. The rhymes

in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds.

Students often choose to listen to songs time and again, indirectly exposing them to these sounds.

Charades

Target sound: /ӕ/ ; /e/ Learning style: Kines-thetic - Auditory

Level: Intermediate Personality: Extrovert-ed, collaborative

Materials: Images of minimal pairs

Objectives: Create awareness of the usefulness of the sounds

Get familiarized with the sounds and common words that are usually mispronounced

Procedure:

Divide the group in two

The first group choose a participant from the second group to sit in front of the board (A) and another to make the charades (B)

Put minimal pair images behind student A

Student B is not allowed to talk just act

Student A has to guess both words and make a final answer

Ask to the whole class to repeat both words

Then the process goes backwards

Notes: The each group has 45 seconds to guess

If a group gives the correct answer they will win a point, if not the other group gets the point.

Promote inclusion so everybody can participate

Did you hear?

Target sound: /∫/ , /t∫/ Learning style: Audito-ry

Level: Intermediate Personality: Introverted

Materials: Worksheets and a video

Objective: Make a small diagnose and dis-criminate the target sounds

Procedure: Give instructions Distribute the worksheets Put the video from 1:38 to 3:32

Notes: Each word is going to be repeated once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyIUJh5iC4I

Why is listening important?

If you listen to your L2 as much as possible, you will gradually become familiar with the sounds and rhythms of the language and start to be able to pick out words and phra-ses. Eventually you'll be able to understand most if not all of what you hear in your L2. This way you will find easier to repeat those words and phrases.

Strips

Target sound: / Ө/ ; /s/ Learning Style: Visual -

Auditory

Level: Intermediate Personality: Active

Materials: paper strips and images

Objective: Identify the difference between the tar-

get sounds

Procedure:

Divide the class in two groups

Put the images on the board

Students will have strips of paper with words cor-

responding the images on the boards

Say words out loud

When the students recognize the sound one mem-

ber has to take the corresponding strip, run and

post it on the image

Language has always been a fascinating topic. Linguists and educators have gone through various experiments, many ways of teaching a new language and, many inves-tigations into the best method that a new language learn-er can acquire a language. Many of these new approach-es to language have brought attention to pronunciation, which is the essential factor of any language. What we know about language in general is that there are two overall methods of acquiring a new language.

Intuitive-imitative approach, an approach that deals with listening and imitating the sounds and rhythms of an L2 without explicit teaching.

Analytic-linguistic approaches on teaching pure vowels and diphthongs, and also, sought to examine whether elementary L2 learners respond differently to the abovementioned approaches. These two methods were influenced by the study of Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin.

Get to know Marianne Celce Murcia!

Marianne Celce-Murcia is Professor Emerita of Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her interests include English grammar and pronunci-ation—description and pedagogy—the role of discourse anal-ysis in language pedagogy, and language teaching methodol-ogy. After retiring from 30 years on the faculty at UCLA, she served as Dean of English Programs for the American Uni-versity of Armenia in Yerevan (2003-2007). She has taught and worked outside the U.S. in Nigeria, Egypt, and Canada and has done teacher training (i.e., lectures and workshops) in Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Israel, Ar-menia, Italy, France, and Spain.

Get to know Donna Brinton!

Donna M. Brinton currently serves as Senior Lecturer in the Rossier School of Education and at USC's American Language Institute. Prior to that, she served as Professor of TESOL at Soka University and at UCLA as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Associate Director of UCLA's Cen-ter for World Languages. She has taught a wide spectrum of Applied Linguistics and English as a second language classes and has also trained and supervised teaching as-sistants.

Get to know Marianne Celce Murcia!

Marianne Celce-Murcia is Professor Emerita of Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her interests include English grammar and pronunci-ation—description and pedagogy—the role of discourse anal-ysis in language pedagogy, and language teaching methodol-ogy. After retiring from 30 years on the faculty at UCLA, she served as Dean of English Programs for the American Uni-versity of Armenia in Yerevan (2003-2007). She has taught and worked outside the U.S. in Nigeria, Egypt, and Canada and has done teacher training (i.e., lectures and workshops) in Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Israel, Ar-menia, Italy, France, and Spain.

Get to know Janet Goodwin!

In Janet Goodwin's classroom, small talk can be just as important as correct grammar. A lecturer in the De-partment of Applied Linguistics and TESL since 1986, Goodwin uses video clips of conversational language to instruct international teaching assistants in the oral skills they'll need for teaching - and for chatting. "You can't teach oral skills and not use technology. At least I don't think you should be doing it if you don't have some way to capture speech, and you don't have a way for stu-dents to listen to things more than once. It can't all be live. I feel like I have to do this," she says. For Goodwin, teaching with technology has been the most effective way to help students grasp the difficult parts of lan-guage.

7 Tips to Improve

Many teachers, especially if they are new to teaching ESL classes, may be a little intimated by the prospect of teaching English pro-nunciation. But, just like almost everything else, if the process is broken down into small manageable steps, the task is not all that daunting. This site is an attempt to do just that- to break the pro-cess of teaching pronunciation down into smaller steps and show teachers how to teach English pronunciation.

Why is proper pronunciation important? Because without correct pronunciation- no matter how vast the students vocabulary may be, no matter how well the student understands and uses grammatical rules, no matter what their level of reading or writing skills may be- if they don’t use correct pronunciation it may be very difficult for listeners to understand what they say. And that is a huge hin-drance to communication. In addition, some research indicates that if a student cannot pronounce a word correctly, they may not be able to hear it when spoken by another person either, which fur-thers hinders communication.

Your Teaching

1. Vowel Length

2. Mouth Positions

3. Practice Listening

4. Write Tongue Twisters

5. Feedback

6. Put the Stress on Stress

7. Practice Word Stress with Vocabulary

Recomendation

Vowel Length

One of the biggest difficulties in clear pronunciation is vowel length. Short vowels aren’t short

enough and long vowels aren’t long enough. Do contrasting exercises where long vowels are extra-

long (e.g. ‘seeeeeat’) and short vowels are very abrupt (e.g. ‘sit’). This is especially great if you are

doing short/long minimal pair exercises. It’s important to exaggerate in the beginning so that stu-

dents can hear the difference more clearly. Do competitions where students see who can hold the

sound the longest. Over time, make the vowels shorter and shorter until they are the appropriate

length.

Long vowels (& dipthongs)

The vowels in: beat, boat, boot, bait, bite

Short vowels: bet, bot, but , bat, bit

Mouth Positions

Studies have shown that explicit instruction in how to position the mouth while speaking greatly

helps learners tackling difficult sounds. First, demonstrate with videos and exaggerate making the

sounds yourself. Then pass out mirrors and have students observe their own mouth positions while

forming the sounds. Here are some of the most important mouth positions for tricky English sounds:

Open mouth: bot, bought (note: for some English dialects, there is no distinction between these

vowels)

Round mouth: boat, boot,

Neutral position: but, bit, bet

Corners of mouth pointed down (makes a frown): beat / bat

Tongue between teeth: threat; let

Practice Listening

You need to hear it before you can say it. Encourage students to get as much listening experience

outside of the classroom as possible. Assign listening reports in order to check in and see what

kinds of English students are listening to outside of class. Listening doesn’t have to be boring; tell

students to listen to popular music, TV shows, movies, anything in English will work!

Write Tongue Twisters

Everyone knows that tongue twisters are a great way to practice pronunciation, but instead of doing

all the work, share the load with your students. Having students create their own tongue twisters

helps them to not only practice their pronunciation, but be more aware of which sounds are in the

words they know. They will have to really think about how to say words to know which ones to in-

clude in their tongue twister, and everyone will have a laugh sharing the crazy sentences that result.

Feedback

It’s incredibly important that students get feedback early and often before they begin bad pronun-

ciation habits that are difficult to adjust as later learners. As a teacher, it can be difficult to main-

tain a large classroom and give individualized pronunciation feedback to many students. A good

way to manage a large classroom is to make notes while students are speaking, for example dur-

ing role plays or individual presentations. Make note of specific words/sounds that students strug-

gle with while speaking in front of the class, and after the class, focus on the most frequent pat-

tern of errors for that particular student. Keep a note card for each student that you can make

notes on and then give to the student. You can also have the students keep track of errors on

their note card; for example, if you correct them during class, they can make a note of the mispro-

nounced word on their card so they can remember to practice later.

Alternatively, you can seek outside help for pronunciation feedback. There are some software

programs and websites that can evaluate pronunciation. One of the best ones

is www.EnglishCentral.com. The website is has a few free features, but as a paying subscriber,

students can receive individualized feedback on their spoken pronunciation. The subscription fee

is quite reasonable for the services it provides, and if you sign up as a class, you can get reports

on all of your students.

Self-reflection feedback is also critical. If you’re working with more advanced students, have them

record themselves speaking and ask them to evaluate their own speech. If you’re working with

lower level learners, record yourself reading a passage or give them a recording of a native

speaker reading a passage. Give them the same passage and have them record it. Tell them to

listen to the two recordings multiple times to identify any words that don’t sound the same. Re-

peating this task often will help them to monitor and be more aware of common errors.

Put the Stress on Stress

Often times, our students are misunderstood when speaking not because of the individual

sounds, but because of inappropriate stress. Think about the word “A-luh-BAM-uh.” Now, try say-

ing it with inappropriately placed reduced syllables “AL-uh-buhm-uh.” The word is essentially un-

recognizable. Do stress marking activities where you can give students a list of words they al-

ready know and have them identify stressed and unstressed syllables until they understand the

idea of stress. Practice knocking on the desks for each syllable; knocking extra loudly on the

stress syllables and very gently for unstressed.

Practice Word Stress with Vocabulary

English has incredibly erratic word stress patterns which are rather difficult to learn due to all of

the exceptions to the rules. The best way to learn word stress is to practice as you introduce new

vocabulary words. As students study their new vocabulary, tell them which syllable to place the

stress mark on so they can practice accurate pronunciation while learning the word.

Minimal Pair Grab Game

Target sound: (e.g. /i/ and /I/). Learning Style: Visual – Auditory – Kines-

thetic

Level: Beginner-Intermediate ESL

Personality: Extroverted

Objective: The students focus on two vowel sounds (e.g. /i/ and /I/). This provides the student with the proper practice to distinguish different sounds within the target lan-guage. Materials: Flash cards with minimal pairs. Tape is used to place words on the board. Procedure: 1. Students split up in groups of 2 or 3 in rows, lines, or you can number the students. (Depending on class size you can alter the group size.) 2. Drill the minimal pairs with students for a few minutes so that the students can get an understanding of the different sounds. 3. Once the drill is done you can place the minimal pairs on the board. (Shuffle the words around to make it difficult for the students to locate the word.) 4. The teacher will then have the set of minimal pairs on another sheet and call it out the desired word. 5. Students will then go in order against the other group and the first to grab the word the teacher called out earns a point. This will go on until there are no more words.

Pair Dialogue

Target sound: /Ө/ ; /ð/ Learning style: Visual - Auditory

Level: Advanced Personality: Social, Ex-troverted

Materials: Dialogues

Objective: Practice the target sounds in contexts; in-teract and receive feedback

Procedure: Give instructions

Arrange the students in pairs

Distribute the dialogues

Ask the students to highlight the words that contain the target sound and write above it the respective symbol

Repeat the dialogue

Ask the students to correct their classmates if they perceive a mispronunciation or ask for clarification

Monitor the work

A. On Thursday, would you like to go to the Theatre to see ‘A Thousand Roads’? B. Yes, I am free on Thursday, I would like for both of us to go. It will be the fourth performance I see this month. A. That is a lot of times to go to the Theatre in one month. I think it will be the fourth time I go this year. B. Which Theatre are we going to? A. It is the Thirty Moons Theatre. B. Is it much further past the village of Thornton? A. No, the Theatre is quite near Thornton.

A. On Thursday, would you like to go to the Theatre to see ‘A Thousand Roads’? B. Yes, I am free on Thursday, I would like for both of us to go. It will be the fourth performance I see this month. A. That is a lot of times to go to the Theatre in one month. I think it will be the fourth time I go this year. B. Which Theatre are we going to? A. It is the Thirty Moons Theatre. B. Is it much further past the village of Thornton? A. No, the Theatre is quite near Thornton.

Can you help me?

Target sound: /ӕ/ ; /e/ Learning style: Auditory

Level: Advanced Personality: Social, Extro-verted

Materials: Cards with words that produce the target sounds

Objective: Practice the target sounds in context; in-teract and receive feedback

Procedure: Create two desk lines, one in front of the other Let the students sit Give instructions The students will found a card on the desk with two

words that they will have to use Line A is going to be customer and line B the custom-

er service representative. Line A will ask for help (using the two words) Line B will provide help (using the two words) Every 30 seconds the lines must rotate When everybody is in his original position, the lines

must change roles. Start over