How to Teach English pronunciation – Dr TEFL Guides

English pronunciation with Dr. TEFL from EBC

Hello everyone! Dr. TEFL here with some great ideas for English pronunciation.

Traditionally, teachers ask students to repeat vocabulary several times when introducing new words. Repetition is good, but not enough. Most experienced teachers know that students mispronounce the same words shortly after a repetition exercise.

The reappearance of poor pronunciation tells us that:

1. There is a need to have vocabulary exercises several times during a lesson.
2. There is a need to focus on specific difficulties and specific sounds from time to time.
3. We should also encourage students to listen a lot, for example, to song lyrics while reading the words simultaneously.

Exercise to learn English pronunciation

Level English: A2 – B2 (CEFR scale)

Aim

Students focus on specific sounds in spoken English.

Activity 1: Minimal pairs

This material focuses on phonetic sounds /eI/ as in “may” versus /ai/ as in “my”.

The following sentences are examples you can use. The sentences refer to the worksheet, which is shown at the end of this section.

Minimal pairs of sentences

1. She thinks she is going today.
2. I don’t want to pay.
3. I’d like a try, please.
4. My house is at the end of the lane.
5. The workers were very unhappy in the mine.
6. I didn’t like the wait.
7. I wasn’t sure that it was time.
8. It covers a big area, Lake Washington.

Minimal pair activity instructions

Read the sentences aloud, completing them with the words/phrases in column A.

For example, “She thinks she is going today.” You have to mark “today” in column A of the worksheet.

Once you have read all the sentences, review your answers for a couple of minutes.

Now we introduce phonetics; the sounds in this exercise are written as:

• /eI/ as in “may”
• /aI/ as in “my”

Minimal pairs worksheet

Activity 2: Long versus short vowel sounds

Long/short vowel sounds, for example:

1. The long /I:/ as in “beat”
2. The short /I/ as in “bit”

Activity 3: Sound – non-sounds

Write three columns on the board.

Review these words.

• washes
• plates
• forks
• knives
• eats
• dishes
• potatoes
• talks
• sits
• chews

SUGGESTION: Look at how words end in their basic forms and think about voiced and voiceless sounds. Some rules for voiced and voiceless sounds.

1. If a word ends in a voiceless sound, it takes the ending /S/. Example: forks.
2. If a word ends in a voiced sound, it takes the ending /Z/. Example: chews.
3. Words take the ending /IZ/ if the ending creates a syllable. Example: washes.