Teaching Pronunciation (Theory and Practice)

It is necessary to teach pronunciation to our students since the meaning can be understood if it is pronounced or said correctly. Also, learning pronunciation does not only involve how to sound the words but also in which syllable we should give a stress in. There are three main problem in teaching pronunciation in the classroom. Firstly, some learners are not sensitive towards the different sounds. Therefore, they tend to produce the same sound. I personally find it as an interfere of the L1. Secondly, the languages that we daily speak may be have different sound from the target language. The third is the intonation. Indonesian people usually give stress in certain words to indicate warning. However, English has more complex stress and intonation. It involves falling and raising tones. In reality, the learners often speak with flat intonation. In conclusion, those three problems are influence by the language they use everyday. The way we can take to minimize and overcome this problem is to habitualize them with English sounds through the recording conversation and practicing to pronounce the words with the correct intonation. Also, presenting them the comparison of the similar sound and costrasting the different sound with their mother toungue will be very helpful.

The appropriate time to teach pronunciation in the classroom is similar to teaching grammar and vocabulary. It can be the main material. In this way, the teacher needs to consider the time allocation in the lesson plan and the kinds of activity. It is not suggested to use the same technique from the beginning until the end of the meeting such as repetition. The second is discrete slots where pronunciation become sthe part of the main material. The teacher allocates the specific time for pronunciation. Still, it is a small piece of the main material. The third is integrating it with the lesson. The fourth is finding the chance to explain it such as giving feedback for them.

In helping the personal students, the teacher may bring the difficulties into the classroom. The teacher should build a rapport to know the obstacles they face. Bringing it into the classroom may unite their perception towards the sound of the words. Some ways to do are focusing with the sounds, stress, intonation, spelling, and connectig it to the fluency.

Commonly Found Question 

Question	:	Students’ pronunciation are usually influenced by their mother tongue. How to minimize this problem? What kind of activity that the teacher can do?
Answer	:	From the presenter’s answer, it is okay if the learners’ pronunciation is influenced or interfered by their L1. They can also learn from other sources about the sound, stress, and intonation. However, he does not anwer the kinds of activity. After the class ended, I discussed it with some friends from different universities about the way to overcome it. Most of them suggested to habitualized the learners to listen to the native speaking. It can be done inside the classroom by integrating it with the task. Also, giving them homework by watching videos without subtitles can be done. They just need to catch the meaning and the teacher can review it in the end of the session. In addition, repetition is the most common way that most teachers apply.
Question	:	Is native pronunciation important for both the teacher and the students?
Answer	:	It is very important to have the native-alike pronunciation. Since the pronunciation is influenced by the L1, only those who come from the same L1 background catch the meaning. However, the aim of learning English or other foreign languages is to communicate with other people. Thus, to make our speaking understandable, native pronunciation must be had.

Critical Analysis

The teaching of pronunciation is very crucial. People may understand what we mean through the sound we produce. If we incorrectly sound it, people will totally not catch the meaning or catch the different meaning. It happens to teaching the students. The main problem caused is the L1 interfere. I personally often find it in teaching all levels. Madurese people can pronounce /ǝ/ correctly. However, /ou/ can be pronunced incorrectly. Even, they cannot differentiate the sound of /ou/ and /o/.  It also happens to Bataknese which habitually pronounce seven /sevǝn/ into /seven/. The teacher’s job is to minimize it because people with different L1 or native people cannot tolerate this problem. They will not get the meaning.

Also, motivation should firstly emphasized here. The teacher should be able to inspire the learners. A story from a famous person nowadays in instagram named Andika Wira who was thought as the voice over the listening section in TOEFL. It is because he has a good pronunciation and the correct intonation. He was inspired by the movie of Harry Potter. This way can be used by the teacher to inspire the learners through movies, culture, famous activities from the target country.

The first time I learnt the phonetics symbols was when I was in the undergraduate study. I personally suggest all English teachers especially those who teach in rural areas to teach the phonetics symbols to their students. Therefore, they only need to open the dictionary to know how a certain word is pronounced.

It is also suggested that the learners do not mix between the American English and British English pronunciation. They should decide which style they want to use. Also, the biggest factor is coming from the teacher. He should model it first because in reality, many teachers still use this mixing accents.

References

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007a. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yRfFXWUj5nCHLIFMGyPuvTZeSXGj9rc7iX0_O_l_pXDWuNL4cKD9iOACXy3SKQq5Y5Ax_ygfebfIAw09jIWk9etXgartLHIbV3AdNQgJ426UCMKTR_76epQprZ69MeT9eq8NCB8ieew/s400/thsound.jpg