Practice Activities FP005 T&P

SUBJECT PRACTICE ACTIVITIES:

TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

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The subject practice activities consist of doing individually five short exercises. The
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 Practice Activities FP005 T&P

Name and surname(s): Noelia Edith

Fuentes Rivera Gamarra
Login: PEFPMTFL1562274
Date: June 30, 2017

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 Practice Activities FP005 T&P

Practice Activities

You can find attached excerpts of two books to teach pronunciation.

Excerpt 1: Underhill, A. (2005). Learning and Teaching Pronunciation.

Oxford: MacMillan. (pp. 14-24).
Excerpt 2: Hancock, M & Donna, S. (2014) English Pronunciation in Use.
Cambridge: Cambridge University. (pp. 10-19).

Review the two books and answer the following questions.

1. What seems to be the general approach of the books? Segmental or

suprasegmental? Exposure-based or explanation based? Humanistic or
drill-based? Teacher-centred or student centred? Traditional or unusual?
Use what you learnt in Chapter 9 to justify your answer.

Pronunciation.

In the context of English language teaching (ELT), pronunciation is an integral aspect

of communicative competence that can influence the desire to use the language as
well as the quantity and quality of input received and output produced. Yet, in training in
pronunciation skills (perceptive and productive) does not have a secure place in most
language curriculums (Setter and Jenkins, 2005)

The Communicative approach and Natural approach.

The different approaches I have found after reading the two books have connection as
I would like to point out.
Bearing in mind that the Communicative Approach, also known as communicative
language teaching (CLT), emphasizes interaction and problem solving as both the
mean and the ultimate goal of learning English or any language, it tends to emphasize
activities such as roleplay, pair work and group work. Teaching pronunciation involves
Communicative approach as well as Natural approach. In the Natural approach the
teacher speaks only the target language and class time is committed to providing input
for acquisition. Students may use either the language being taught or their first
language. Errors in speech are not corrected; however homework may include
grammar exercises that will be corrected. According to my own work experience I
would like to say that the majority of students are more interested in improving their
speaking competence, but in order to accomplish their goal, they must begin with the
basic expertise in correct pronunciation. Bad pronunciation can cause
misunderstanding and uncomfortable situations that students will not be able to avoid.

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It can also hinder students learning process and they may not feel confident when
speaking.
Krashen points out Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language
-natural communication in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their
utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.
From my point of view, teaching pronunciation needs of both approaches due to the
fact that learning a new language nowadays is more communicative, but it doesnt
mean that students will not pay attention to errors at all, when are learning the different
vowels sounds, consonant sounds or any of the prosodic features.

Segmental level.

Segmental aspects of accent and pronunciation are individual sounds, also known as
phonemes, meaning consonants and vowels. Syllables and one-syllable word are
considered as segmental aspects of accent and pronunciation, as well.

Suprasegmental level.

Suprasegmental refers to how speech sounds function and are affected at the
sentence and discourse level, which is to say over multiple sound segments that
combine to make phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Suprasegmental aspects of accent and pronunciation are intonation, added stress, time
stress, tone, linking and connecting, thought groups, volume, speed, reduction,
assimilation, deletion, weak forms of function words, conversational contractions, and
standard contractions which are also used in writing.

According to the two books and bearing in mind the meaning of segmental and
suprasegmental features, I must say that the two books are focused only on segmental
aspects, due to the fact that they both contain vowels, diphthongs and consonant
sounds. They dont contain any prosodic features as I mentioned above, although both
approaches should go along together on a longer-term basis to get perfection or
intelligibility.
Tench explains that any monologue or dialogue can be used to show how intonation is
relevant in all spoken language, supporting the observation with an overview of
intonation in terms of its informational function(thought groups/intonation units, nuclear
stress, prominence, contrastive pitch movements), its syntactic function
( disambiguation of meaning), its textual function (organization of extended stretches of

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discourse) and its genre-specific function (prosodic composition of different genres,

news reports sound different than storytelling).

Exposure, exercise and explanation procedures.

Teaching pronunciation without explanation will not be successful in any sense. The
different vowel sounds and consonant sounds need to be explained and imitate them
so that students get perfection.
In exposure, students will do some communicative activities, so they will be expose to
the target language and pronunciation. Then, in exercise students will pay attention to
identify and practice the vowel and consonant sounds and / or words. Finally, with
explanation, they will become more aware of the real pronunciation they are expected
to produce.

Teaching techniques drilling.

Drilling is the way of standardizing pronunciation of a language item and developing
fluidity. The idea is for learners to develop good pronunciation habits by first listening to
a model from the teacher, or a tape or another student and then repeating this model
several times while receiving positive and negative feedback for their efforts.
Some drillings to practice pronunciation according to the two books that are being
studied and compared are:
Choral repetition
Comprehension
Drilling in pairs
Highlight
Individual drill
Whether teachers are aware or not, they are always teaching pronunciation by being
themselves one of the main sources of input of the FL in the classroom. For a long time
teachers have used drilling as a way to teach and practice pronunciation (Tice, 2004).
Although the overuse of drilling is not acceptable nowadays, this technique remains a
useful activity in the classroom if it is applied appropriately. For example, drills can help
students to gain confidence because they practice pronunciation as a group and there
is no opportunity for others to make fun of somebody is he/she mispronounces a word.
Tice (2004) has mentioned that for drills to be meaningful, learners need to understand
what they are being asked to say. Monotonous chanting of decontextualized language
is not useful to anyone. The task of the teacher when drilling is to provide with a model
of a certain structure or just to repeat a word they have already seen and get them
pronouncing in unison. This strategy helps students to build confidence and focus on
pronunciation problems so that they can try to overcome them. It should be noted,
however, that drilling should not be used too much because it can be boring and then it
is unlikely to be useful at all (Tice, 2004)

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Traditional approach vs Activity-based approach.

For many years, the traditional teaching style or specifically, teacher-centered
instruction has been the dominant in higher education. In a traditional classroom,
students become passive learners, or rather just recipients of teachers knowledge and
wisdom. They have no control over their own learning. In contrast, activity-based
teaching as defined by Prince (2004) is a teaching method in which students are
engaged in the learning processes. Churchill (2003) stated that an engaging activity
with activity-based teaching helps learners to construct mental models that allow for
higher-order performance, such as applied problem solving and the transfer of
information and skills. This means that students take responsibility of their own learning
and are directly involved in the learning process. Learner-centered teaching style
focuses on how students learn instead of how teachers teach (Weimer, 2002).

it is clear for me that the role of the teacher here, is to guide monitor, support and
encourage students to set and reach high standards. Students progress from controlled
production of selected features. The studied features are put to communicative use in
partially planned and unplanned activities.

2. Does it cover all aspects we have seen in the materials? Articulation,

vowel/consonantal system, phonemic chart, connected speech, stress,
intonation, foreign influence? Etc.? Refer back to the materials if any of
those aspects needs definition.
The two books do cover most of the aspects I have seen in the materials. Due to the
fact that pronunciation is being taught and learned, the two books present aspects in
different forms.
The From zero to hero book is a more practice activity book while Discovery Toolkit is
more theoretical . Students can practice from both:
- Vowel sounds
- Consonant sounds
- Phonemes
- Larynx
- Intonation
- Tone and pitch
- Spelling and transcription
- The phonetic symbols are presented not exactly on a chart but there is a variety of
examples in words, sentences and dialogues.
The aspects these books dont cover are about linking words, rhythm nor stress.
It may be because of both books are focused on segmental features.

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3. Does any of them consider integrated skills? Do they teach vocabulary, as

well? If they dont, could you make a brief proposal for them to include
vocabulary?
Personally, I think both books consider listening and speaking skills. Pronunciation
requires a lot of listening and oral practice that is why the materials studied, contain a
lot of oral practice as well as listening.

The Pro-Voc method.

The method exploits the principle of categorization by organizing the vocabulary
according to some aspects of the phonological form of the word, sound (vowel or
consonant) or other feature such as stress pattern. Thus, categorization can vary
according to the pronunciation focus selected by the teacher; both segmental or
suprasegmental features can be categorized. In addition to the pronunciation focus,
this method incorporates a vocabulary focus in the form of teaching new vocabulary
items, collocations, sense relations and so on. Memory and social strategies are
exploited through the use of several activities that promote deep processing and
interaction between classroom agents.
As far as I am concerned, I can say that the From zero to hero book teaches
somehow vocabulary. The book helps students understand better with the pictures
presented in the text, but I think teachers can use flashcards, mimes and gestures to
help them understand.

4. Which contexts of use are they intended for? Are there significant
differences among the three of them?
The context of use makes reference to teaching vocabulary. They have some
differences. Some teachers are good at the grammatical functions of words and
phrases, and others have a strong knowledge of English word parts, it is known that
every person has some vocabulary knowledge that is relevant to English, even if it
derives from his or her own native language. Aim to build on learners strengths and
also various weaknesses. For example, many students read in English and thus may
be adept at recognizing meaning in terms of concepts and referents, but if they have
not heard the words and phrases they are reading, then they may be weak at
recognizing them when they hear them spoken or weak at pronouncing them when
they read something loud out.

5. Which one would you prefer to use as a teacher? Why? Relate you answer
to Brintons variables.
I would like to use the three of them because students are different, so they learn in
different ways. Perhaps for some of them, collocation is easier than for others who

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would like to work more familiar with grammatical functions. I would like to be ready for
them and provide them all that I can.

REFERENCES

1. BROWN, D (2001) Teaching by Principles : An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy New York - Longman
2. DALTON, C and SEIDLHOFER, B (2001) Pronunciation. Oxford University Press
3. Underhill, A. (2005). Learning and Teaching Pronunciation. Oxford: MacMillan. (pp.
14-24).
4. Hancock, M & Donna, S. (2014) English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge:
Cambridge University. (pp. 10-19).

WEBIOGRAPHY

http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/sept_05_pn.pdf
http://teflpedia.com/Communicative_Approach
http://www.academia.edu/12699517/Teaching_Pronunciation

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https://es.slideshare.net/AjaanRobCMU/the-natual-approach-teaching-methodology-
presentation
http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/english-language-and-
literature/ell_language_ls1sg_sounds_handbook_2011_12.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273633769_The_PRO-VOC_met
http://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_ELTD_Vocabulary_974hod_Combining_pronunciati
on_and_vocabulary_teaching

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