Abstract
Pronunciation is part of the curriculum in many programs of teaching English , but some ESLL teachers don’t have training in teaching pronunciation. As a result teachers may not be able to identify the patterns of reasons for learners’ pronunciation problems or have a systematic way to teach the sound , stress , intonation , and rhythm of English. This is why there are a variety of factors affecting the learning of pronunciation inside class room : accent, stress , intonation, and rhythm.
Along with age during the process of the acquisition of a language , the learners’ motivation for learning the language and the cultural group that the learner identifies and spends time with help determine whether the learner will develop native – like pronunciation. Because English has become an international language, teachers need to keep in mind that the goal of improving pronunciation for many learners is mutual intelligibility, not perfection.
Table of Contents
Abstract ……………………………………….…. (page i) .
Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………..… (1 – 7) .
Chapter 2: Literature Review …… ………… ( 8 – 22 ) .
Chapter 3: Methodology …………………….. ( 23– 26 ) .
Chapter 4: Conclusion ……………………..… ( 27 – 31 ) .
References ……………………………..… ( 31 – 32 ) .
CHAPTR ONE
Introduction
1.1.Introduction:
English pronunciation is very important for ESL/EFL learners to develop their communicative efficiency, and it’s considered, in my own point of view , the most important skill of learning English or any other foreign Language But unfortunately “Pronunciation has been something of an orphan in English programs around the world”. (Gilbert, 1994, p. 38).Why has pronunciation been a poor relation? I think it is because the subject has been drilled to death, with too few results from too much effort, Speaking is so important in acquiring and using a language, and language-competence regarding the speaking skill covers so many aspects. Phonetics, both in theory and practice, constitutes the basis of speaking above all other aspects of language. Speaking is a tool of communication and the way we see, think and feel.
So this project tries to illustrate the learners’ and teachers’ positions, roles and most importantly responsibilities required by today’s methodology of pronunciation teaching.
1.2. The importance of pronunciation teaching nowadays :
Pronunciation is definitely the biggest thing that people notice when one is speaking English. This is why the main purpose of language teaching is to help students learn to communicate. To do this, the students need intelligible pronunciation.
The main purpose we should look up to is NOT to try to move mountains to make students sound like natives in speaking , but our objective should be enabling them to speak naturally and in a way that lets others interact and understand them well with out any difficulties .
– The best method to learn a language ever is through communication and direct interaction .
– There should be a variety of effective materials inside classroom letting the teacher and his students practise the language efficiently __ the materials should include new technology like computers and movies …etc
– Learners acquire language most efficiently when they are active participants in a lesson.
– The language syllabus must revolve around students needs and aspirations in order to spark their motif and interest in learning it .
– Mistakes are okay to happen and must be welcomed , because no one on earth can learn without making mistakes .
1.3. Factors to affect pronunciation :
1-Young children can acquire good pronunciation more easily than adults. Noticeably young children learned the language more properly and naturally than the adults who find it a little bit difficult to speak easily and naturally .
2-Children and adults learn pronunciation in different ways. So we , as teachers , have to consider teaching pronunciation in a variety of methods in order to ,meet all desires and needs of children and adults alike .
3-Natural ability: Some people are talented to even pronounce like natives .
4-Personality factors: People who are more adaptable may have more success in pronunciation.
5-motif : the learners must be motivated by all means in order to pronounce well and naturally .
While teaching pronunciation , we shouldn’t think only about individual sounds. Intonation, rhythm, and changes in connected speech are also important.
We have to consider stressed syllables in words in order to pronounce well and naturally and not to sound hybrid . Therefore we as teachers have to get prorites straight and give much care towards intonation and stressed and unstressed syllables in the same word .
In addition to that , including pronunciation into our classroom we can make the students change their attitude towards learning English as a second language , to learn the importance of the different accents of English ( Canadian , American , British ..) and how a simple change in the pitch of the pronunciation can turn a simple plain sentence into words of happiness, threat , sarcasm, hatred , doubt, boredom or fun , seriousness , the matter that makes the process of learning English something really ( fantastic ) .
Another advantage we can get from practicing speaking inside class room and that is ” improving the listening skill ” because if one would like to speak naturally has to be a good listener in the first place . According to my experience in teaching English as a second language for students coming from all backgrounds, many language students complain about the difficulty of listening and therefore speaking exercises in the courses or exams. I guess that happens due to little practice of pronunciation, intonation and stress and that unfortunately leads to NOT understanding natives as if ironically we speak another language other than English .
I think that these techniques mentioned above if applied in the process of teaching English as a second language would definitely add flavor and fun to learning English . Therefore learning English would go beyond the walls of small classrooms to the spacious world of the new technology such as : computers , the internet , the headphones , and the English laboratories …etc.. .
But the only barrier that we could encounter is the really unqualified teachers who find it difficult to speak English non-stop or naturally. This is why the ministry of Education has to prepare condensed courses for those teachers in a dare attempt to have them well-qualified for teaching in the recommended recipe .
The other barrier that could stand in the way of our students is that a big deal of students say that ” we feel embarrassed when we talk in public in front of other students and shockingly some of them says ” my colleagues make a fool out of me when I try my hardest in order to speak naturally ” . As a matter of fact we as inspired teachers have to handle these hidden obstacles to the process of teaching English .
I really use a variety of methods in teaching the real language inside class room . One of these methods is the traditional one ” repetition ” , but considering the intonation and stressed syllables as a type of unintentional learning
As a matter of fact many students have difficulty learning English especially in spoken English language. There are a lot of problems students unfortunately have .
I stated these problems in the following :
– Students can’t understand when they first hear English from natives .
So they consequently shy away from listening to natives __ the main thing we learn English for .
– The big problem , which this project is mainly concerned , is that students don’t want to speak at all and feel shy away from utterance . The problem of ignorable intonation :
Ironically the students or even the teachers of English ignore this skill
that I consider the most important skill which if learned well , students will be semi – natives in pronunciation .
– Most students give the pronunciation the brush off :
There are two reasons in order for students to turn a deaf ear and a mute mouth to pronunciation .
1) teachers them selves don’t give a care about pronunciation and shockingly just writing .
2) teachers are ignorant how to teach pronunciation due to getting used to it , thus have the learned , they would break the familiar and consequently be severely criticized from old – fashioned people .
For that we as academics have to move mountains and make a lot of endeavors to activate this powerful skill without which none of our students wouldn’t have a good command of English .
Fortunately , through many tours for me inside schools and educational institutions , I really touched a great deal of students showing considerable enthusiasm and zeal for pronunciation. Students feel enthusiastic, because pronunciation is something that would help them to communicate well. Therefore, both teachers and learners have to consider that pronunciation is very important in a language learning process.
Chapter two
Literature review
2.1. Introduction :
Moosa, 1972 and Swan; Smith, 2001 reported that” We as Arabs find it hard to differentiate between the p sound and the b one because we have only b in the mother tongue . This’s why most Arabs and not only Saudi Arabians find difficulty distinguishing between the p and b sounds as a result of being influenced by their mother tongue .
We , for instance say / bark / for / park / …leading to a change in meaning moreover .
Also Alkhuli , 1983 noted that ” Gruttenden, 1994 showed that foreign learners of English language replace /s/ for /θ/ and /d/ or /z/ for /ð/; (/z/ .”
(Ladefoged, 2001; Carter & Nunan, 2001) showed that ” the learners of foreign languages are subject to committing some mistakes with regards to pronunciation .” So many learners use /p/ as /b/, others use /s/ for /θ/ and /z/ for /ð/ and /b/ for /v/.
2.2. “The Vowel System”:
The letters ( oo, u, ou, o ) are all” pronounced the same /u:/, so we have different letters with same pronunciation .
• The Materials in Pronunciation Teaching a). English Vowels.
According to Jones,” vowels are some of the continuous voiced sound produced without obstruction in the mouth unaccompanied by any frictional noise.”
Jones (1958:15) in his book “The Pronunciation of English” classifies the vowels into 5 based on the position of the tongue:
• Front vowels, in the production of which the ‘front’ of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. For example, /i:/ in /fi:d/ feed.
– Back vowels, in the production of which the ‘back’ of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate. For example, /u:/ in /fu:d/ food.
Central vowels, when the position of the tongue is in the middle or in the intermediate of front and back. For example, /з:/ in /bз:d/ bird.
– Close vowels, when the tongue is held as high as possible consistently with not producing a frictional noise. For example, /i:/ in /fi:d/ feed and /u:/ in
/fu:d/ food.
1. Open vowels, when the tongue is held as low as possible as in /a:/ in
/fa:ðə / father.
b). English consonants
According to Kelly (2000:47) consonants can be described in terms: (1). The place of articulation
(a). Labiodental
Sound which is articulated by the tip tongue against the upper teeth; e.g. /f/ (b). Dental
Sounds articulated by the tip tongue against the upper teeth. e.g : / ð / (c). Alveolar
Namely sounds articulated by the tip or blade of the tongue against the teeth-ridge; e.g. normal English /t/
– Palatals
Namely sounds articulated by the back of the tongue against the hard palate; e.g / j /.
– Velars
Namely sounds articulated by the back of the tongue against the soft palate; e.g. /k/
– Glottal
Namely sounds articulated in the glottis; e.g / h /. (2). Manner of articulation
(a). Plosive
A complete closure is made somewhere in the vocal tract, and the soft palate is also raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is then released ‘explosively’, e.g. /p/ and /b/
(b) Affricative
A complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth, and the soft palate is raised. Air pressure increases behind the closure, and is then released more slowly than in plosives, e.g. /t< / and /d< /
– Fricative
When two vocal organs come close enough together for the movement of air between them to be heard, e.g. /f/ and /v/
– Nasal
A closure is made by the lips, or by the tongue against the plate, the soft plate is lowered, and air escapes through the nose, e.g. /m/ and /n/
– Lateral
A partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against the alveoral ridge. Air is able to flow around the sides of the tongue, e.g. /l/
– Approximant
Vocal organs come near to each other, but not so close as to cause audible friction, e.g. /r/ and /w/
2.3. English Diphthongs:
Diphthongs are sounds, which involve a change in quality during is their production. It is the combination of vowel sounds. Diphthongs are represented phonetically by sequences of two letters. The first showing the starting point and the second indication the direction of the movement. There are three kinds of diphthongs. They are (closing) diphthongs, falling diphthongs, centering
• diphthongs.
• Raising or Closing Diphthongs.
– The position of the tongue when the second vowel is pronounced higher than the first one. For example:
• /ai/, like in time /taim/, fine /fain/
• /ei/, like in make /meik/, take /teik/
• / i/, like in boy /boi/
• /au/, like in now /nau/, how /hau/
• /əu/, like in no /nəu/, go /gəu/ (2). Falling Diphthongs.
• The position of the tongue when utters the second vowel is lower than the first one. For example:
• /i ə/, like in fear /fiə(r)/, hear /hiə(r)/
• /ə/, like in pure /pjə(r)/ (3). Centering Diphthongs
• The position of the tongue when utters the second vowel is at the id central. For example:
• /ə/, like in fore /fə(r) /, more /mə(r)/
• / εə /, like in there /ðεə / (4). Supra-segmental phonemes
• Supra-segmental phonemes are classified into seven classes; they are:
• Stress. Stress is the pressure of breath with which sounds are produced.
• Intonation. Intonation is the changes in the music of the voice while producing speech.
• Pause. Pause is the silent between parts of un utterance.
• Juncture. Juncture is a very short time of pause. It is the space in speech between sounds or words.
• Rhythm. Rhythm is the beat of language. It is the stress-time.
• Meaning between two primary stresses is the same.
• Pitch. Pitch is the height and/or direction (up-down contrast level of pitch can distinguish word. For example, in Chinese there are four levels of sounds that can differentiate meaning.
• Length. Length is the long or short a phoneme should be pronounced.
• Stress
• According to Jones (1958:57), the force of the breath with which a syllable is pronounced is called stress. Stress varies from syllable to syllable. Syllable which are pronounced with greater stress than the neighbor syllables are said to be stressed.
• It is in fact generally sufficient to distinguish two degrees only-stressed and unstressed. Stress syllables are marked when necessary by ‘placed immediately before them, thus father, ‘f< :< ə, arrive, ə’raiv, opportunity,
• pə’tju:niti, what shall we do? ‘(h)w< t< əlwi:’du.
• The same words and sentences are not always stressed in the same way.
“Jones (1958:59) states in speaking,” the pitch of the voice, i.e. the pith of the musical note produced by the vocal chords, is constantly changing. These variations in pitch are called intonation (or inflection). Intonation is thus quite independent of stress, with which it is sometimes confused by beginners.
Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realization and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh- questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc.
Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:
* Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises over time .
* Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time .
* Dipping Intonation falls and then rises .
* Peaking Intonation rises and then falls . Principles in Pronunciation Teaching
According to Penny, principles in teaching pronunciation are: ” a). Having a suitable curriculum .
Things to Know before teaching pronunciation :
When teachers teach something, they start to help students acquire some primary concepts on which they can build more complex understanding. For example, when teachers teach science, they make sure students have a basic understanding science before teach them about science. It is absolutely the same as teaching pronunciation, before teachers teach pronunciation, they should have a rough curriculum for teaching pronunciation to access material relevant in particular situation.
According to Kelly (2000:16), ” there are some strategies in pronunciation teaching:
For example “Drilling ”
Drilling is main way of pronunciation practice in classroom. Basic form of drilling involves teacher saying a word or structure, and getting students to repeat it. Aim of drilling is to help students achieve better pronunciation of language items, and help them remember new item.
Drilling often follows a process known as eliciting. It is to encourage students to bring up a word, phrase of structure as they study before. Teachers generally use prompts, pictures, mimes etc, to help learning process along. Teacher’s main role of drilling is to provide a model of the word, phrase or structure for students to copy.
Wahba (1998) investigated the problems faced by Egyptian learners of English as a second language. His study shows that certain phonological errors committed by the learners are related to stress and intonation. He suggested that these errors are interlingual and occur because of the phonological differences between the sound systems of English and Arabic.
Al-Saidat (2010) conducted his study of English phonotactics to discover the types of pronunciation problems Arab learners encounter while learning English as a second language. In his study the researcher investigated what types of declusterization processes are found in their interlanguage and what the sources of such processes are. The researcher, in this study, showed that Arab learners of English unintentionally insert an anaptyctic (p.128) vowel in the onset as well as in the coda (p.129) of certain English syllables. This study also demonstrated that the major reason for declusterization processes is the mother tongue influence.
2.4. Stress, Intonation, and Rhythm:
Munro and Derwing (1999) observed that ” the foreign learners of languages find difficulty using intonation , rhythm and the stress-use in their speech ” ( Cited from 2006; Munro & Derwing, 1999 ) .
Vowel reduction ( cited from a study by Donna M. Brinton, Janet M. Goodwin ” second edition “)
“Vowel sounds are often educed in unstressed syllables. They become less clear, and often turn to /´/ (schwa). Only a small number of vowel sounds commonly occur in unstressed syllables.”
There are rules that can often predict where the stress will fall in a word. They take into account the historical origin of a word, affixation, and the word’s grammatical function in a sentence.
Sometimes a change in word stress indicates a change in the part of speech:
Compound nouns are usually stressed on the first part of the compound. LACKbird , FINEfoods , OVERcrowded .
Compound verbs are usually stressed on the last part of the compound.
Vowel sounds are often changed (reduced) in unstressed syllables.
Sentence Stress: The syllable in a sentence or clause that receives the most emphasis or prominence.
• Sentence stress is often used to emphasize a word to emphasize it or to show that it is new information.
• Content words: Words that carry information. They have meaning in themselves.
• Function words: Words that show the grammatical relationships between other words, but don’t have much meaning in themselves.
• In a sentence, content words tend to be stressed, and function words tend not to be stressed.
2.5. Giving Feedback:
Giving feedback is making correction which is used by teachers in order to reduce errors made by students in pronunciation. Giving more feedback will help students accurately in their own use of language. When teachers give feedback, they should have different kinds of correction techniques or strategies. For instance, teachers give feedback by practice rising and falling of their intonation, giving one that is chosen for student which is true or false, and writes some correction in blackboard. By giving feedback, teachers actually can reduce students’ errors. Consequently, students will be more confident in pronounce pronouncing English words.
• Pronunciation Test
Brown (2004:3) stated that ” a test, in simple terms, is a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain. A test is first a method. It is an instrument—a set of techniques, procedures, or items—that requires performance on the part of test-taker. Second, a test must measure. Some tests measure general ability, while others focus on very specific competencies or objectives. A test measured an individual’s ability, knowledge, or performance.”
Furthermore, according to Hughes (2003:8), there are some purposes of testing in teaching learning process:
– To measure language proficiency.
– To discover how successful students have been in achieving the objectives of
a course of study.
• To diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses, in identifying what they know and what they don’t know.
• To assist placement of students by identifying the stage or part of a teaching program most appropriate to their ability.
Obviously, pronunciation is tested globally in different types of conversational exchange, interview, reading aloud, etc., that go on in the classroom. What seems to be insufficient is the testing of accuracy-that is, testing to assess the learner’s management of specific features, segmental or supra- segmental. This insufficiency is due to two main causes. First, many teachers do not consider it useful to test specific features. This attitude is based on the belief that the mastery of specific features, taken individually, does not matter much in real-life situations where the context always provides the clue for the learner to interpret what he hears (Heaton 1988:64) or to make him understood even if the ideal quality of phonemes is not reached.
“It is possible for people to produce practically all the correct sounds but still be unable to communicate their ideas appropriately and effectively. On the other hand, people can make numerous errors in both phonology and syntax and yet succeed in expressing themselves fairly clearly.” (Heaton 1988:88)
Taking segmental phonemes and word stress as illustrations, this article explores some ways of testing specific features of English pronunciation, both as a teaching activity and as part of an examination. The ideal way of testing pronunciation is actually listen to the learner. However, since this is not always
possible or suitable, the alternatives discussed below can be used for testing segments and word stress.
Chapter three
Methodology
3.1. Introduction:
We really need an authentic way to teach English __ this way should include a variety of rules and steps to follow in order to be natural when reproducing the words of English . We need to emphasize the musical aspects of pronunciation in addition to individual sounds.
3.2. The Tool:
A randomly 15 selected students from several schools – a recorder – the material of the recording .
* A group of 10 participants are randomly selected and their sounds were recorded . the y have their readings recorded and then given feedback for what they had read
It’s really a very effective way for measurement and assessment .
they were not corrected when they have mispronounced the words. they listened to the same text and are asked to guess which accent they listened to ( AmE or Britiish ) . The aim of these recordings is to put my hand on their pronunciation problems which could be springing from learners’ self activities .
( the questionnaire is just an exam including a text to be transcribed into phonetic sets), and applied on a random sample of students of King Abdallah Bin Abdulaziz – High school ( Bisha ) about 10 students . The text material which is read by the participants is any passage selected from a newspaper ( any given article ) .
3.3. The Material Selected :
1) Tongue Twisters : A fun way to encourage students speaking automatically (If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?” .
Poetry, rhymes, jazz chants, and songs: All of these provide authentic material for pronunciation practice in a fun and relaxing way.
” “Swallow A Smile”
When it first started
which would be impossible to trace,
we’ve accepted the fact that a smile
is only worn for the face!
Realizing what elicits this gesture
is when we are thoroughly pleased
as the corners of our mouths
tend to rise with relative ease!
Other authentic materials, such as advertisements, excerpts from story books and literature, restaurant menus, and magazines, are also useful in teaching pronunciation.
My own gadget:
* I used my tablet & microphone to record in order to record speech sounds .
3.4. Findings :
The findings of the questionnaire revealed that
– the students, had problems with the pronunciation of English vowels that have more than one way of pronunciation in addition to the consonant sound contrasts e.g. /z/ and /ð/, /s/ and /θ/, /b/ and /p/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/. Based on the findings, the study concluded that factors such as interference, the differences in the sound system in the two languages, inconsistency of English sounds and spelling .
– they substitute the sounds that they don’t have in their native language, with other sounds which are close to them in the place of articulation e.g. they replace /p/ with /b/, /θ/ with /s/ .
– they use /b/ instead of /p/ and /p/ instead of /b/ for instance words like (pen ) most of them it as as /ben/ .
The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/ are pronounced by the students as inter-dental, rather than alveolar plosives.
– The sounds / tʃ /, /ʒ/ and /v/ are not normally realised by Saudi students, consequently these are often replaced by the sounds /ʃ/, /dʒ, ʃ or z/ and /f/ respectively—for example, the sound /tʃ/ as in cheap is replaced by the sound /ʃ/ as in sheep; the sound /ʒ/ as in leisure is replaced by the sound /dʒ/ as in ledger or by the sound /z/ as in laser and finally the sound /v/ as in vine is replaced by the sound /f/ as in fine.
– the velar nasal /ŋ/, which is a single consonant represented in English writing by two letters (-ng), is also mispronounced by many students. As a result, they pronounce the word (heating = /hi:tiŋ/) as /hi:ti-n-g/, (visiting = /visitiŋ/ ) as /visiti-n-g/ etc.
– To cut it short most of students have major problems with pronunciation in regards with these sounds /p/ and /b/ , /tʃ/ and / ʃ/.
, /dʒ/and /ʒ/,/θ/and /s/, / ð/ and / z / ,in addition to some other problems with the use of long vowels ( as clarified in the Recording Material ).
Chapter 4
CONCLUSION
4.1. Introduction:
It is difficult for a second language learner to speak with native-like pronunciation. Therefore this research attempts to identify the problematic areas of pronunciation and to identify the exact reasons behind them and to try to find suitable techniques that help the students to speak English with better pronunciation.
Teaching English for many teachers is about making the students speak. In our days, it is in the fashion to work within competences and the importance of communication in the classroom. When a teacher is so interested in getting to the class’ goals, he might focus mainly in grammatical structures, meanings, and pragmatics and in certain specific language skills such as reading comprehension, writing, speaking and listening. However, the final two skills are not just about producing utterances but also about the way they are produced.
Pronunciation and Stress are elements that need to be taken into account into the lesson planning processes of the courses. They are important because this help students not only to improve the way they are speaking but also because they make communication to be clearer and accurate and, collaterally, helping listening comprehension to be better. That is why we considered important to include in this paper, some examples of difficult consonants and techniques described in order to make teachers and students be interested in paying more attention to pronunciation and stress.
With practice, students can develop the imperative habit of self-correction. A huge mistake English language learners make is to think in their native language and then translate into English in their heads.
This is a mistake, because English syntax and word order is typically something that cannot be translated from another language.
Finally, it is important to mention that teachers need to take into account pronunciation and intonation as important parts of language development. Students can master grammar and know where to use certain phrases but ‘how’ they do it is as important as the appropriate and correct speech.
4.2.Results and Recommendations:
Based on the observation and researches done on a sample of the Besha’s King Abdallah Bin Abdelaziz high school Here are some recommendations and pronunciation therapy ,as I call it :
* teachers should recognize the pronunciation errors and correct them and teach the students how to pronounce these sounds correctly.
* it is worth looking at the dictionary for checking the correct pronunciation of words
* there should be pronunciation lessons ranking the same as lessons in other skills e.g. Grammar, and vocabulary and sentence structure to draw the attention of the students to the importance of pronunciation in learning English.
* Teachers should make learners aware of the importance of English pronunciation within English language learning programmes, as well as in English language communication. The learners should be given a basic knowledge of phonetics and phonology
– The teacher should give proper attention to the students and their special needs and problems. The teacher should also conduct a students’ needs analysis regarding pronunciation. According to the needs of the learners, the teacher should develop some appropriate materials and strategies to present in the class to reduce the learners’ problem(s).
– Unfamiliar sounds — which do not exist in the learners’ mother tongue — should be identified and given special attention.
– Establish ” Language Clubs ” to practice English as much as they can ( it’s really a great motivation ) .
– There should be a systematic practice of IPA symbols.
– Oral communication classes should be encouraged in English teaching program
– The students should be asked to read aloud the text with the support of recorded materials or with the teacher’s support. If the student commits any mistakes while reading aloud, the teacher should correct and practice it several times.
– The students should be given situational dialogues which will improve their confidence, while at the same time motivating the students to learn to speak correctly.
– The students should be given enough instructions or opportunities to learn pronunciation within English language courses.
– The teachers should encourage and motivate the students to speak English outside the classroom.
– Minimal pair drills should be used to distinguish between similar or problematic sounds in the target language
– The teachers can also use tongue twisters—a technique from speech correction strategies. Such as – If two witches were watching two watches, which witch would watch which watch?”
– Students should be given a video or some texts read by some natiives and asked to immitate and copy them in an exact way .
– Teachers have to motivate students to watch American & British movies , visual media , news channels such as CNN,BBC,SAUDI INTERNATIONAL ,…etc .
– Teachers should ask students to read texts aloud and if any mispronunciation is noticed , it should be corrected at once and repeated several times .
– The students should always be taken the chance to speak and put aside their shyness and embarrassment.
References
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Techniques to improve EFL students´ pronunciation , Jazmin Damian Campos
Kenia Maribel Franco Alatorre Universidad de Quintana Roo 2010
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