PRONUNCIATION
There are four major areas of pronunciation: the area of individual sounds, that of word
stress, intonation and connected speech.
If intelligibility (The quality of being clear and easy to understand: clarity)is the goal of
teaching pronunciation, speakers are to get their message across.
For example, [q] and [p] may not cause a lack of intelligibility if they are confused, but being
very difficult sounds for Hungarian learners they are often mixed with [T], [S] and [F], so
mixing the words free and three can lead to misunderstanding.
Stressing words and phrases correctly is vital if emphasis is to be given to the important
parts of messages and if words are to be understood correctly.
Different word stresses can lead to the different meanings of the word, for example record, n.
[rek(r)d] and record, v. [rk(r)d].
Intonation the ability to vary the pitch and tune of speech is also an important meaning
carrier.
Connected speech will make the speech act fluent and intelligible as a whole.
In the following parts of this chapter the problems of each area will be defined and certain
recipes of how to teach pronunciation in the given area will be provided.
INDIVIDUAL SOUNDS
Students of English have great difficulty hearing pronunciation features which we want them to reproduce.
Speakers of different first languages have problems with different sounds, for example, they cannot distinguish
between two sounds or they do not have certain sounds in their mother tongue.
There are two ways of dealing with this problem: we can show students how sounds are made through
demonstration, diagrams or explanation. The other way of presenting its pronunciation is to draw the sounds to their
attention every time they appear on a cassette or in the conversation. This is the way how we can train the students
ears.
Teachers can use the minimal pair system through which students can recognise the difference between two similar
sounds.
Contrasting two sounds which are very similar and often confused is a popular way of getting students to
concentrate on specific aspects of pronunciation. This activity can be carried out by giving examples, both taken
from English or one word taken from English and the other one taken from Hungarian.
a. vowels
[k], [Id] compare Br. film and Hun. film.
[E], [i] bed and bad
[s], [j], [hd] cut, cot, cart
[jd], [em] law, low
b. consonants
[p], [S] think, sink
[q], [D] this, dis-
[W], [V] west, vest
[R] Hun. park, Br. park
[n], [N] sing, sin
[P], [T], [D] Hun. pl and Br. polo
Dictionaries give the pronunciation of words in phonetic symbols. Students are usually only
asked to recognise rather than produce the different symbols and these symbols are
introduced gradually rather than all at once. So, according to most experts on methodology,
the knowledge of phonetic symbols is of benefit to students. Teachers are expected to
present phonetic symbols simultaneously with presenting the meaning of the new word. So
as to identify these symbols, students are expected to listen to cassette recordings and
they are expected to practise pronunciation in choral repetition first and then individually.
STRESS
Stress is important in individual words, in phrases and in sentences. By shifting (things such
as standards or relationships are always changing) it around in a phrase or a sentence we
can change emphasis or meaning.
A common way of drawing our students attention to stress issues is to show where the weak
vowel sounds occur in words (rather than focusing on the stressed syllables themselves).
We can draw attention to the schwa [e] like in the word photographer [f t r f (r)].
We teach word stress when we present a new word and at the practice stage clapping,
tapping are used or students can be asked to underline the stressed syllable.
In sentence stress students are supposed to focus on logical stress. Students are supposed
to recognise where to put the stress in a new structure. Teachers are supposed to set tasks in
which students have to change logical stress according to the types of message. The
presentation and practice stages are the same as with teaching word stress.