What is pronunciation? How can we help children strengthen their pronunciation skills?
Hey teachers and parents👋!
Hope you are all staying safe. This week’s topic is pronunciation👄. Pronunciation is a topic I like discussing because it is often overlooked as a subject that needs to be taught and practiced. First, I am going to give a short explanation on what pronunciation is and why it is important. Then, I am going to give some tips for successful learning of pronunciation, as well as activities that can be used to encourage practice with pronunciation in an engaging way.
Pronunciation👄, the way in which a word is pronounced, can be difficult for many students to master. Two factors that make pronunciation hard for students is that there are multiple sounds a letter can make and that there are many sounds in the English alphabet that are not in their native language alphabet. Moreover, pronunciation is often relegated to the bottom of the teaching pole compared to grammar and vocabulary. This is perturbing because speech sounds are essential for communication💬; they have an important impact on being understood. Many teachers, myself included, often choose not to correct pronunciation mistakes. Sometimes, I’m unsure if it is because of a student’s accent or speech patterns and other times I don’t want to dishearten 💔 the student’s effort so I ignore the way they are speaking the sounds of words. I have learned though, that I put my students at a disadvantage when I do this. Thus, I encourage teachers, especially ELL teachers to reflect 💭on the work and decisions we make with pronunciation.
So, what is the secret to fluent pronunciation…..practice, practice, and more practice💪. Here are 5 tips/suggestions for meaningful practice with pronunciation👄.
Students must have a solid foundation in phonemic awareness and phonics to succeed with pronunciation. Teach students explicitly, systematically, and in context the 26 letters of the alphabet and its 44 phonemes (unique sounds).
Observe🔎 your students speaking patterns and identify minimal pairs (words that are exactly the same except for one different sound, i.e. sheep and ship). Highlight the differences through mimicking, but make sure to also verbally explain how the sounds are different as not all students even through mimicking will be able to hear the difference.
When pronunciation is difficult due to it being a non-native language, copy native English speakers and record📱yourself speaking words or sentences. For many people, hearing what they say while they speak is difficult because they are so focused on making sure they are successfully communicating. Therefore, listening👂to yourself will prevent pronunciation errors.
Utilize songs🎤. Singing is an action that is universal and enjoyed by many. For special education students and English language learners, it can often be a non-stressful way to learn and/or practice English as they don’t need to concentrate on constructing sentences. Moreover, since sentence construction is eliminated, people can really focus on pronunciation. Play the song, practice reading the words, then sing-along!
Employ readers theater📖. Readers theater is an activity where students read-aloud a play or short story with the script in their hands. The goal is to feel comfortable enough to read fluently and accurately (correct pronunciation and intonation). Sometimes students may decide to include props 🎭and actions according to the words, but remember this should not take-away from its goals. First, a native English speaker reads the script at least once, maybe twice. Then students practice reading lines. After, students are given a specific part and run through the lines specific to their part. After a lot of practice, it is ready to be performed. You can find readers theater scripts online or adapt them from any book or story.
I hope you find these tips and suggestions helpful. Let me know if you decide to use any of them and if you do, how it went!
P.S. If you need help putting any of these tips into action reach out to Jump into Literacy. Jump into Literacy’s curriculum development team can provide a hands-on-workshop to demonstrate these tips, as well as help you find and/or make materials.
