English Pronunciation

Many ESL schools utilize the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to teach and reinforce English pronunciation. My first hand experience teaching Asians English tells me this is not practical. Why?

Ok, first most second Language students from Asia travel to the Philippines or other destination for a limited time. The average stay is 8 weeks. many stay 4 weeks, and a few study abroad for 32 weeks or longer. Secondly, the majority of these students do not know the IPA. So with this in mind, should I spend the time to teach the IPA, or use a direct hands on method to show tongue and mouth positions?

I used to teach remedial speech in middle school in the U.S. The method to get speech impaired students at this level to get proper tongue position is to reinforce correct position through direct interaction using diagrams, animations and most importantly modeling behavior. (Monkey see Monkey do).

Mistakenly many ESL students think pronunciation is solely a speech skill, it is not. It is first a listening skill. If you can't hear it properly, you will never be able to model it or repeat it.

My technique:

At the beginning of each class I use a self made tongue twister to drill my students. First, I have to say we have fun with it, and even in a one on eight class it is effective. Every one gets a turn to say the phrase on the board.

First I model the pronunciation several times, then I introduce any new vocabulary in the sentence. Sometimes I point out homophones and homonyms (words spelled the same or differently, have different meanings, but sound the same; or spelled the same in the latter subset homonym).
Dipththongs and blended letters and words I usually correct and teach as each student takes a turn saying the phrase.

I show them and instruct them on tongue position using my techniques from remediation teaching. I have seen remarkable improvement in the majority of my students within one or two weeks. My students are all adults 20-55, so teaching them pronunciation is exactly like remedial speech instruction, IE: unlearning old habits and replacing with new behaviors.

Term	Meaning	Spelling	Pronunciation
Homonym	Different	Same	Same
Homograph	Different	Same	Same or different
Homophone	Different	Same or different	Same
Heteronym	Different	Same	Different
Polyseme	Different but related	Same	Same or different
Capitonym	Different when capitalised	Same except for capitalisation	Same or different

The Dreaded "R" Sound

The r sound is one of the most difficult sounds to make for ESL students. In American English, the /r/ sound is rhotic. When speaking with the General American Accent, Americans use a rhotic /r/, which means we say it in all parts of the word, (beginning, middle, and end) including when it occurs after a vowel sound. This is one of the major differences among accents of English. I tell my students, where you see an /r/ written, pronounce the /r/ sound. The key is to remember that vocalic /r/ has 5 different positions, as it is controlled by vowels, which modifies it's shape each time. ie: or, ar, er, ir, ur.

The /r/ sound and the /l/ sound are difficult because they are both "liquid". This simply means there is no hard place to put your tongue tip (except for the L at a words beginning, "la") and as you say the letter your mouth and tongue are moving. I spend time at the beginning of every class doing rudimentary pronunciation practice, usually by means of a "tongue twister". Invariably when we practice the /r/ sound we end up making faces at each other and making weird noises as I attempt to demonstrate and teach the /r/ sound.
Here are some tips.

• I tell my students: Sweep the roof of your mouth(front to back) with your tongue saying 'ah'. When I say stop, keep your tongue in that position and continue vocalization. Then Bring the tip down slightly. The tip doesn't touch any part of the mouth at this point.
• make a bowl or cup shape with your tongue with a flexing action as if your making a muscle.
• the cup shaped sides of your tongue touch the side of your mouth just above the back molar area.
• the front of the tongue can be up or down just not touching
• say "sh," then stop, but maintain the tongue position, and then drop the tip of the tongue slightly relax your jaw and say /r/. This can lead to say, "sh...r" (sure)

Pronunciation: The "r" Sound

Minimal Pairs

ray	lay	way	fire	file	marrow	mellow
reed	lead	weed	steer	steel	crew	clue
rain	lain	wane	tear	teal	bereave	believe
rash	lash		trier	trial	berated	belated
rind	wind		pyre	pile
rest	lest

Challenging Words

rhyme	ear	wary	retrieving
care	ire	ritual	irrelevant
rail	wire	ogre	relentless
rare	flare	peril	rollover
roar	hair	wristwatch	labyrinth
roll	arrow	infringe	occurrence
war	really	rowing
strip	heirloom

In Phrases

rest and relaxation	not a care in the world	violent behavior
live and let live	a calendar girl	All's well that ends well
road rage	without rhyme or reason	twenty-seventh
get your wires crossed	rest assured	anniversary
101 West Redwood Road	random access memory	liven up
road rally	verifiable evidence	wide variety

Dialogue

A: What's wrong?

B: Nothing. Just rehearsing my lines.

A: What for? Are you performing in a play?

B: It's called "The Grapes of Wrath."

A: Never heard of it.

B: Really? It's the most popular play around.

A: Are you memorizing or just trying to remember?

B: I'm trying to concentrate.

B: Sorry.