Blog 15 pronunciation at the KTP

Hello, everyone ✌

For this new entry, I will write about one aspect of teaching English at the KTP program that is sometimes overlooked, but necessary for students learning: pronunciation. First, I will write a short definition of what teaching pronunciation means and why it is important when learning English. Then, I will mention some activities and interventions I made to practice pronunciation in my classes at the CCA. Finally, I will give my opinion regarding the importance of teaching pronunciation and how it should be addressed in an English classroom.

The guiding questions for this entry are:

How did you approach pronunciation in today's sessions? 

Did you include any of the tips/strategies we worked on in our last session? If not, which ones did you include?

Pronunciation:

Taken from: https://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

Although pronunciation is not one of the 4 main skills of English (listening, speaking, writing, and reading), it is still a crucial element when learning this language. Pronunciation focuses on the production of phonemes and the sounds of English. It is normally addressed at a segmental level, which focuses on individual words, or at a suprasegmental level, which includes other features like word stress, intonation, and fluency in longer productions such as phrases or sentences. 

To produce sounds, we use the phonatory apparatus. As air is expelled from our lungs, it is stopped by different organs in our mouth. Depending on how the mouth is articulated, a specific sound is produced. To give an idea of how many phonemes we can pronounce, in English, there are about 44 individual phonemes, without mentioning extra accents and phones. In Spanish, there are only 24 phonemes, which means there are about 20 individual sounds that are not commonly used or easily transferable for Spanish native speakers to English.

Taken from: https://www.cde.state.co.us/coloradoliteracy/phonemesimilaritiesinenglishandspanish

This doesn't mean that you have to be able to accurately pronounce all sounds to be considered a native speaker. Nonetheless, it is important to be aware of the specific moments in which pronunciation can significantly vary the meaning of what you are trying to say. This is the case of the minimal pairs, which are words that are only differentiated by one phoneme when pronounced. For example, Bat and Pat, Beat and bit, or cheat and shit.

Pronunciation in my classes:

Generally, pronunciation is not a current topic in my classes as, for the most part of the time, we need students to produce freely while they become aware of what they are saying and develop their self-correction skills. Nonetheless, from time to time, it is necessary to make this kind of intervention to ensure that errors don't fossilize in future levels. For example, in my class of TB1 1.1, many students incorrectly pronounced the word"since" and said it like science. These are the phenomena that I can't find a definition for, although it could be an overgeneralization of the /ai/ sound of i.

To make students aware of the issue, I guided them to make shadowing, so I would pronounce the word and I would make them repeat it until everyone pronounced it right. 

When addressing errors, I use the "taxonomy of errors" of Carl James, as I'm aware that there are errors that shouldn't be corrected right away to avoid overcorrection. For example, if a student commits a slip or an attempt type of error, there is no need to correct because the student can be able of self-correct or is just exploring their interlanguage. However, if a student continues to make the same mistake and is connected to the lesson, which is a "mistake" type of error, there is a need to correct it. Likewise, when correcting, I like to use the recast technique to allow them to correct themselves. For example, in TB1 1.3, when a student is talking and I notice a mistake, I would repeat what they say and make a subtle emphasis on the error so they can correct it. If the student is not aware, I give the correct pronunciation.

Personal opinion:

I believe that pronunciation is key to achieving a higher level of proficiency in the language. It minimizes the misunderstandings, and you will gain a higher respect for academic English contexts. Nevertheless, it is important to be consistent and avoid overcorrection, because it can be demotivating and tiring for students. There are variations of English that sometimes people mistake for an error, but it's equally valid. For example, when I say label, the most common pronunciation is /laibel/, but I tend to say /label/, which is common in some American English variations.

In my case, in French, I suffered a lot with my teacher because they wouldn't even let me finish a sentence without stepping in and saying everything that went wrong. Thanks to it, I didn't want to participate because I felt that I was saying everything wrong. I personally don't want my students to feel scared of committing mistakes, so that's why I'm lenient with errors that I know students are aware of or that they will be able to cover in future classes, but if it's an error that clearly needs attention, I won't hesitate to make the student aware of it.

Finally, it is important to understand that the speaker's native language would intervene in the pronunciation of some words. However, as long as the person can communicate, it might not represent a major issue. If you want to practice your English pronunciation, I recommend that you read the Please call Stella prompt, as it has all the American English phonemes in a short sentence, so it could be a useful tool to see what phonemes you might need to work on.

You can find the sentence here:

https://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=145