I would say that my current level of competence is foundation. I can recognise symbols and some terminology, but I still find it difficult to integrate a pronunciation activity in the class, unless it is featured in a course book. 

I’d like to be able to experiment with pronunciation activities that are not necessarily taken from the course book, and to become more confident with sentence rhythm and intonation. Personally, I find that they are among the most important elements of speech. However, I feel like they are for me the hardest elements to teach in a convincing manner.

As far as practical teaching techniques, I sometimes welcome students’ mistakes as a way to practice sound formation for the whole class (usually by drilling). This can show them that it is not just one person’s weakness, but that a particular sound can be a challenge for other language groups too.  

A positive aspect in my experience has been my background as an English language learner. This gives me some confidence in helping students when they are struggling with elements that I also find challenging, such as –ed/-ing endings. 

I’m looking forward to learning more practical tools to teach pronunciation. I’d like to understand better how to make different sounds/rhythm/intonation easier for students to master, not just when they are drilling them in class, but also when they are talking (or listening) to people outside the school environment.

Fran

I rarely dedicate much time to pronunciation unless it appears on the course book or mistakes arise ad hoc in a class conversations. Much of my pronunciation teaching may ;develop  from vocabulary with focus on the stressed syllable or long syllables sounds. I'm afraid to say I don't often use diphthong symbols in my class. Preferring to use an spell the sound out by letters eg oooo - costumes, rather than  diphthongs u: - costumes.  

 I often divide problem words into syllables, break them down with stress underlined; eg Tuesday -  2 syllables,   tues/ day  - (1st syllable is stressed) - pronounced  CHOOOS/ DAY   ......like a train chooo chooo !  

Students react well to pronunciation especially when pointed out the need to contract words in order to sound like a native and improve fluency. For example the ability to squish would into 'id,  the world would be better... the world'id be better. I would do drilling on this and ask them to think of examples to repeat and practice the target language... Think of 3 ways to finish the sentence; 'The world'id be better if we were more equal' and so forth.

 My goals would be to learn better techniques at drilling problem pronunciation, not just class drilling, but games and mouth exercises. I would especially like to learn techniques for helping Asian students who often struggle with being understood not for lack of knowledge of the word but poor pronunciation. 

I always try and drill grammar forms when teaching lower levels, I do a lot of error correction and individual word stress. There's certain things I like to pick on, particularly "-ed sounds" at lower levels and will not let students get away with making mistakes there. I feel I need to bring this into a more posts of pronunciation. All to often, it can just be when there is pronunciation in the course book.

Students react very positively to it and I always try to include a practice activity to make it fun. I do need to do more of it and try to get my students to focus more on it too.

My main goal is to become fully confident in teaching pronunciation so I can know how to best implement it in my classes. I'd like to gain a better knowledge of how we use the mouth to produce sounds and a complete grasp of terminology as a basis for learning.

Graham

The given framework regarding pronunciation has led me to believe that I am ‘developing.’ 

I usually teach pronunciation of individual words only once meaning and usage has been established; as the final part of a vocabulary lesson, but before the freer practice. 

My method for teaching individual words is that I will write a word on the board, say the chosen word twice, and then I will chorally drill the class until I can hear the majority of them have are saying it correctly; at this point I will ask a random student to tell me how many syllables the word has, and where the stress lands. I will mark this on the board; and I will mark any difficult parts/sounds with the correct phonemic script. (Sometimes I will mouth map.) I will repeat this with however many new words we’ve introduced, and finish by individually drilling students, pointing at the word on the board silently for them to say; correcting them if they make any mistakes. Then they can go into a speaking exercise once the correct pronunciation has been introduced, which I monitor. 

I will do this twice a week. 

The other kind of pronunciation I do comes from students individually reading out chunks of text. I don’t correct the student until after they’re finished, unless they’re really floundering, because then they become too reliant on intervention. With this kind of pronunciation, I focus less on individual words and more on linking, elision, tone and word stress. Afterwards, I model. I will do this once a week. 

I feel my students enjoy pronunciation because it involves the whole class. Sometimes, but rarely, a student might say it’s embarrassing, so I will leave that student till last, or second last, so they don’t feel pressure. I find the best way to deal with a student’s embarrassment is to do pronunciation so frequently that it all feels very ordinary.  

I am relatively confident in my teaching of pronunciation, but I would like to learn new ways to teach it, so as to make my classes more diverse and fun. I have also forgotten all the terminology from my CELTA, so I’m looking forward to having my memory jogged in that respect, and I'm really looking forward to working with, and learning from, other teachers!

Teaching pronunciation is certainly not something that comes naturally or easily to me. I find it hard to make a tangible lesson out of it. When exercises appear in the book I always cover them but more as a ‘by the way’ type exercise, aided by the CD and not much more. 

When teaching new grammar structures I drill examples chorally (particularly contracted forms as these are more common in spoken English), building sentences up word by word and adding intonation. I then drill individually followed by freer speaking practice. 

The final way I cover pronunciation would be with individual words we encounter in readings or through speaking. I don’t correct on the spot (unless the student is looking for guidance) instead taking note and going through it on the board at the end of the reading/speaking activity. My knowledge of the phonemic chart is limited so I am not confident referring students to it. I try to elicit a rhyming word for shorter words (Bear = Hair, Bird = Word, Beer = Fear etc…). And for longer words I model and get students to count out the syllables and identify the stress.

Students generally react positively to learning pronunciation and I think they recognise the importance of it. They seem to particularly enjoy choral drilling. However my teaching of it is certainly not consistent enough.

In doing this course I hope to learn some basic terminology and some techniques/exercises/games to make a more substantial lesson. I also hope to become more familiar with the phonemic chart and really just to feel a little more sure of myself when teaching pronunciation. 
Eva

The students usually react positively but I feel like this is a bit dull for them. I’m giving them the minimum they need but I know I can do much more - I just don’t know where to start.

I am fairly confident in teaching pronunciation but there is a lot of room for growth. Through the course I hope to learn how to make pronunciation classes more fun, interactive & varied for the students.

Similarly to what others have mentioned, I would teach pronunciation when an exercise appears in the book, but I cannot say I work on it in a very principled manner as it is not an area in which I am confident. When teaching vocabulary, I drill pronunciation of new words and try to focus on sounds that might be problematic for different language groups as well as word stress. When students struggle to hear the correct stressed syllable or produce individual sounds correctly I try to “exaggerate” the sound they are trying to reproduce to raise awareness of the problem. If they need to work on words stress, I use clapping or tapping their foot to identify the stress syllable, for example. 

As Eva mentioned, when teaching a new grammar point I would drill the examples (before giving them freer practice) that were used in the presentation stage and focus on sentence stress as well as intonation, but I would not dedicate a lot of time to it. 

In general students react positively as I think they see it as an important part of the learning process. As Oisín mentioned, some students might feel embarrassed or get frustrated if they cannot reproduce a particular sound. I think that a good way to deal with these problems is to make pronunciation a part of our weekly routines in the same way teaching grammar and vocabulary is.  

My main goal is to become more confident in teaching pronunciation in general so I can tech it on a more regular basis; but mainly to be able to help the students develop techniques to improve their pronunciation even when they are not in class.
  
Lucía

I have brought this practise into my teaching of pronunciation in class. I model new language, drill 3 times chorally and 3 times individually. I listen for errors and when necessary I model the shape of my mouth, the voiced/unvoiced sounds and give examples of similar sounding words. After this process I write the new vocabulary on the board and elicit the syllable stress from the students. At this stage I choose students who I have not individually drilled to say the word and give me the syllable stress to ensure I have heard as many students as possible without tediously asking each to repeat. I also try to practice the intonation of vocab when applicable (asking questions, showing emotion etc.) and contractions in connected speech.

New vocabulary is incorporated into each lesson. I generally do this process in each class for at least 10 minutes spread out. 

This takes place when pre-teaching potentially blocking vocabulary before a reading, when eliciting vocabulary about a specific topic and before a discussion/production task to give students useful language to try out.

Students generally seem comfortable/ familiar with this process. 

My confidence with how I teach pronunciation at present is fair, but I have very little confidence with bringing more technical explanations into practice.

Throughout this course I hope to be introduced to new ways to teach pronunciation, to learn about the importance of pronunciation, to enhance my knowledge on pronunciation problems unique to different language groups, to enhance my knowledge of phonics and to learn about how sounds are produced. 

Usually with new vocabulary, I drill the word a couple of times, ask the students to identify the amount of syllables and the location of the stress(s). If the students are energetic and seem to be mildly enjoying it, I’ll make them come up with other words that they think sound similar, or play a guess the stress game. I’ll exaggerate my mouth movements in correction and get them to do the same; I find this is helpful and it usually generates a couple of laughs. I use phonemes when necessary but I admit these demonstrations aren’t consistent due to my own limited knowledge of the phonemic chart. 

While I dedicate time to teaching the pronunciation of words, I don’t focus so much on things like sentence stress and intonation. I’ve found that drilling sentences in the hopes of clarifying intonation doesn’t work well as the sentences will start off with ten speakers and end with one. Intonation is something I want to incorporate more of into my lessons, so I’m looking forward to learning practical and engaging ways of teaching it.

I try to do a bit of pronunciation in every class I teach but I’m very aware of how much I’ve yet to learn. What I’ve practiced in the classroom so far has only been the tip of the iceberg: my goal is to be able to say that I can confidently and successfully create and teach pronunciation lessons my students will enjoy. 

 

Shaneen