How do you integrate pronunciation teaching with other language skills and content areas?

In many years teaching pron. to students from different linguistic backgrounds, I've noticed that many need the physiological aspect of phoneme production explained to them, if they are to produce the sound correctly. Mere imitation or repetition does not always help, and a student who struggles with the production of a given phoneme will usually overcome the difficulty by learning the mechanics: place the tongue against the alveolar ridge, blow air through both sides of the tongue, place your hand on your throat to feel the friction, etc. Another helpful aspect is for the teacher to be acquainted with the main characteristics of the student's native tongue. This allows us to predict/pinpoint difficulties and provide effective guidance.

As an accent reduction ESL instructor for many years, I have found that most adult ESL students have had pronunciation classes before but the instructors always focused on teaching the segmentals, vowel and consonant sounds. My students were always surprised the learn that the bigger features of speech, suprasegmentals, syllable stress, stressing content words not structure words, thought groups, etc., really make more of a difference in being understood as an ESL speaker. Students need to be taught suprasegmentals and learn how to hear them in the speech of native speakers. They need to record their voices reading sentences, dialogs, etc., imitating native speakers. Then they need to learn how to monitor their own pronunciation.

In my Spanish classroom I think its helpful to make my students aware that vowels in English are short and the mouth is more closed when we pronounce them whereas in Spanish vowels are longer and more open. Our brains subconsciously associate the sound with the movement of the mouth muscles when we create these sounds so its important in the beginning stages to practice the pronunciation in isolation and exaggerate the sounds so your brain makes the association with a new sound that will become more automatic with time and practice and this will greatly improve the accent.

I explain the difference between Pronunciation Vs. Accents: Pronunciation is supposed to be corrected whereas Accent is not. When dealing with Brazilian students the most assertive explanation is about the history of Brazilian Portuguese syllabic pronunciation hence why this nationality makes pronunciation mistakes when speaking English (English is a stress-timed spoken language whereas Portuguese from Brazil is a syllabic-timed spoken language). Tip: When teaching pronunciation to ESL students always check their mother language literacy.

Yes! As a Spanish teacher and someone who learned Spanish as a second language, for this reason I find listening to music with the repetitive nature so helpful. In addition to this learning a second language is more of a subconscious process and our brains are designed to acquire accent and pronunciation implicitly. I realized this when I lived in Argentina and after a few weeks I could naturally produce the soft d in Spanish whereas in the beginning I was trying to pronounce it softer and I couldn't.

Clients respond best to modelling, where I simply repeat what they have said, correcting the pronunciation, and they will often naturally repeat after me, with the corrected pronunciation. We don't focus on eliminating "accent" but rather speaking clearly enough for there to be no doubt about the meaning.

Adult learners need to be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to improve their pronunciation. If they do, they can be given support and feedback but often it takes time as they have to unlearn bad habits to replace them with new.

Make pronunciation fun! Warm up with tongue twisters, then have a friendly competition in a "challenge corner." Take speaking practice outside for a real-world touch. Turn it into a detective game—spot and fix pronunciation mistakes. After speaking tasks, let learners be coaches, helping peers. This makes pronunciation practice lively and interactive! 🗣️🌟

Communication is the most important aspect of speaking and pronunciation has to be integrated into any speaking activity in lessons to help our learners become comprehensible. Drilling and repetition is great, but helping learners understand how the sounds are made, with both mouth shape, and tongue position, and how these may vary from their mother tongue can increase comprehension and intelligibility.

I tend to do reading in groups; each person gets a turn to read. We note down the new vocabulary and how to pronounce writing the key/trickier sounds in phonetics or with a picture of another word they already know how to say so that the sound is linked. For example, howl - i would underline ‘owl’ and draw a picture of an owl under it associating the new word with a known sounds. Spoon - underline the oo and draw a picture of a cow with a speech bubble etc. we then talk about/recall other words with the same sound pattern and one that are spelt similarly but pronounced differently. 10-15mins activity that corrects multiple pieces of pronunciation.

Combine reading and pronunciation for a fun adventure! Discuss interesting words before reading and predict pronunciation patterns. Play reading games, like a scavenger hunt for sounds. Make it a friendly competition for entertainment and learning. Try a "pronunciation book club." Read silently, then discuss and mimic pronunciation in pairs or groups. Turn reading into lively discussions and pronunciation parties. After reading, celebrate! Share pronunciation insights through peer feedback or reflections. Merging reading and pronunciation makes a complete language experience! 📖🗣️✨

This works with students Who are older or at least less shy. In my experience, if it doesn’t hinder the communication I won’t correct, unless the student asks me to

While working on reading comprehension with my students, I draw their attention to pronunciation features such as linking, reduction, and intonation. I ensure that my students read passages aloud and focus on fluency and rhythm.

Reading out loud is a great way to build up confidence in pronunciation for learners of all ages. It can also help learners to understand how written English is very different from spoken English. Choral reading with younger/shyer students can be a good way to introduce reading out loud as it takes some of the pressure off. Getting students to read in pairs, rather in front of the whole class can be another way to encourage participation. Students should feel encouraged rather than forced, as this can be quite an intimidating thing to do in our mother tongue, let alone a second language.

Again; I think perfect pronunciation is very difficult to achieve and as long as we’re understanding each other, go for it. I only correct a student if they ask me to or if it’s a word that has a completely different meaning.

Blend writing and pronunciation for a creative journey! Start by brainstorming sound-rich words, creating a "word melody" to explore language's musical side. In writing, become pronunciation composers. Use symbols or recordings to capture sentence rhythm. It turns writing into a lively composition, where pronunciation is the story's heartbeat. After writing, have a "pronunciation reading party." Share written creations aloud to celebrate linguistic expression. Encourage learners to be pronunciation editors. Listen to recordings, identify areas for improvement, adding a reflective layer to writing. Fusing writing with pronunciation turns language creation into an expressive adventure! 📝🗣️🎶

Como, em vários casos na língua inglesa, muitas palavras são escritas de uma forma e pronunciadas de outra forma. Como e em português, todas as vogais são pronunciadas, de forma aberta ou fechada, e as consoantes também são pronunciadas, para um iniciante que está aprendendo inglês, terá algum tipo de dificuldade, então costumo sempre explicar e mostrar quais letras não são pronunciadas e peço para repetir a pronúncia algumas vezes, em alguns casos, eu escrevo em português como se pronuncia determina palavra em inglês.

Jazz up grammar and pronunciation! Add "pronunciation notes" to lessons for a musical touch. Before exercises, create a catchy preview to set the tone. Turn grammar into a play. Make sentence construction a game with challenges like "grammar karaoke." It reinforces rules and turns grammar into a performance. Let learners be grammar detectives. Have them spot and fix pronunciation glitches while practicing. Adding a detective hat makes it a fun exploration of rules and sounds. After the grammar jam, host a "pronunciation grammar party." Learners share sentences with correct pronunciation, turning it into a celebration of language precision. By blending grammar and pronunciation, we create a harmonious learning experience! 🎵📚🗣️

Grammar and pronunciation go hand in hand and I fully believe that students will benefit from learning the spoken pronunciation of grammar structures. For example, contractions are used by fluent speakers all the time; learning 'I'm' rather than 'I am' will increase comprehension and their ability to communicate. This even includes more advanced contractions that are spoken, but never written, such as 'I wouldn't've thought that!'

I usually tie every pronunciation lesson to grammar concepts. For example, when teaching verb tense, I focus on how pronunciation changes with different verb forms (e.g., "talk" vs. "talked").

Learning the pronunciation of a new word can be so beneficial when helping others understand what you're saying. Having the right vowel sound as well as the stress on the correct syllable can be the difference between having a good conversation with someone or getting totally confused. Getting your language comprehensible allows communication which builds confidence. Therefore, it's essential that as teachers we encourage our learners to understand the pronunciation of new words. This can be through mimicking us, or copying videos, or thinking about how the mouth and tongue move around the sounds.

Mispronunciation can affect meaning (or grammatical function) Sounds can be taught by: listening; 3D models; airflow, tongue & lip descriptions; use of mirrors/video cameras to compare with accurate models; minimal pairs such as "run" & "ran" or "knee" & "me". Try the site 'Youglish' for a large bank of examples of the words in connected speech or 'Tophonetics' for IPA transcriptions. There is much more to pronunciation than just specific sounds. Sentence stress, stress shift, timing, linking, intonation and strong & weak forms play extremely important roles in accurate pronunciation. (Unfortunately these LinkedIn responses are limited to 750 characters!)

Learning new vocabulary, and correct pronunciation are vital aspects in learning a language. Modeling or mimicking the teacher is useful as students can train their mouth movement in order to produce the correct sound. Students can also be encouraged to practice pronunciation in front of the mirror. Balanced feedback is essentially encouraging and progressive...

Integrating pronunciation teaching with other language skills and content areas can be highly effective in reinforcing learning and making it more engaging. When I am introducing new vocabulary, I include pronunciation practice. I also use activities like word stress exercises, minimal pair drills, or tongue twisters to help learners focus on correct pronunciation while learning new words.

By integrating pronunciation teaching with other language skills and content areas, we can create a holistic learning experience that reinforces pronunciation in various contexts and makes it more relevant and enjoyable for students. I intentionally integrate pronunciation practice into content-based lessons on topics like science, history, or literature. I encourage my students to discuss these topics while paying attention to pronunciation.

I find that the challenge with teaching pronunciation is the massive variables. I’ve had most success by: 1 - helping learners with awareness of L1 interference. E.g. Once SE Asian English learners become aware that they often miss final consonants, it becomes an area for them to focus on. 2 - using listening texts to help students ‘notice’ pronunciation areas. E.g. the way consonants change or intrude in connected speech. 3 - being flexible with accuracy. There are so many accents, dialects and Englishes that we can’t really pin down wrongs or rights. We can measure how well pronunciation impacts on communication though. And if successful communication has been achieved, job done!

Much of pronunciation is muscle memory. Like playing guitar or swinging a golf club, little micro-movements will determine success, and the more students can practice and train these muscles (in the case of English, the muscles in the tongue, jaw, and lips) with exercises like tongue twisters, reciting text with a cork between their teeth, or exaggerating pronunciation in the mirror, the better their mouth muscles will perform when they need to speak to a native English speaker or give a presentation. Also, many students spend their weekends (understandably) speaking their own language to friends and family, and their mouth muscles get rusty over the 2 day break. Encourage them to spend at least a bit of time speaking English out loud!

Uma vez, atendi uma moça que não conseguia, de forma alguma, repetir os sons quando eu dizia algo em inglês e coisa piorou quando ela tinha de ler algumas frases. Eu dizia palavra por palavra várias vezes e, mesmo assim, ela não conseguia. Infelizmente, nesses casos, eu não sei o que fazer. Sugeri a ela que procurasse uma fonoaudióloga que pudesse ajudá-la. Só não sei dizer se ela fez isso.

Students of all ages watch the News and cartoons in English. Found pronunciation is learned from watching & listening. Another different approach is having students read comic books. The pictures help with the story. If comic books are too expensive, the Sunday ‘funnies’ from the newspaper will do. I found my students like these different activities!