Tips for Teaching Pronunciation for EFL Class
Credited to: Iskra Angelova
Pronoun
learn to pronounce
cing English words is really difficult for EFL (English as Foreign Language) students. It is so as not all English sounds exist on their native language. For instance, the Chinese language does not have any consonants at the end of the words. They also have no equivalents to “ar” and “z”. Furthermore, they very often confuse “m” and “n”, saying “dam” instead of “down” and “I an tem.” instead of “I am ten”. Therefore, it is a really big problem for EFL teachers teaching them pronunciation.
The first thing that an EFL teacher has to do is investigate the greatest problems in their pronunciation. Then, try to deal with those problems in these four different ways:
1. Visualize the sound
- For, example, Draw or show a picture on the blackboard of two mouths (one open and one closed). The closed mouth represents the sound “m” and the open one, with teeth showing, represents the sound “n”. Furthermore, draw or show a profile of an open mouth to show the position of the tongue when saying “L” in some words.
- It is not enough for EFL students to only look at their teachers saying the word. When the teacher draws or shows a big picture and makes a comparison between the sounds, he/she is making and the one that’s needed.
2. Make it physical
- Still, I am taking an example using problem in pronouncing “m” and “n.” Sometimes, Chinese students just don’t realize that instead of saying “game” they keep saying “gain”. They hear the sound and say what they hear, but their mouths just don’t close over the sound “m”.
-What you can do is to bring a small mirror to class and mouth the words looking at the mirror
- For instance, I say the word “time” and squeeze my lips between my forefingers and thumb until they look squashed. That may make the students laugh a lot (that’s the whole idea because funny memory stays in our students’ brain longer) and it really sends the message home. Sometimes using silly, childish noises we usually make in front of EFL students really help.
3. Connection between Speak, Listen and Write (GAMES)
- For example, the class is divided into two teams. Then, two of the students sitting in the first row of each team go to the black board and wait. Don’t forget to provide two balls with different color. Then, give each team a ball to pass around. When I say “Go!” the students start passing them from one to the other within the team. When I say “Stop”, the two students holding the balls stand up (teacher can also use music instead of saying “Go” and “Stop”). Each one has to say a word with either “m” or “n” at the end. Then the student at the blackboard of the opposite team must write it under the appropriate mouth (Whether it is opened or closed lips). For every correct answer the teams are given points.
The balls are used in the purpose of keeping all the students alert, because they never know who is going to get it. This game can be used for all kinds of activities, for instance: practicing short dialogues for tenses, Q&A, pronunciation, etc.
4. Short dialogues with plenty of the problem sounds in them
Teacher can make short dialogues with plenty of problem sounds in them and ask the students to practice them or ask the students to construct their own dialogues.
Read the related articles on: teach overseas, teaching English overseas
