[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 15 | July 27, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]
1. Make sure you teach pronunciation!
First and foremost on this list of top tips: don’t be afraid of teaching pronunciation! It isn’t just a ‘nice to have’. It affects all areas of language learning – for example, there is evidence that strong reading skills and good phonological awareness go hand in hand.
2. Don’t just teach occasional ‘pronunciation lessons’.
It’s important – and not difficult – to integrate pronunciation throughout the syllabus. For example:
- always drill new vocabulary items;
- invite students to compare how they would pronounce something with what they have just heard in a listening clip;
- invite students to identify words in a reading text that contain a particular sound.
3. Know why your students are learning English and who they (will) communicate with.
It has been estimated that 80% of interaction in English around the world takes place between second-language English users – no native speakers involved at all – and that non-native speakers of English outnumber its native speakers by at least 3 to 1.