Pronunciation

I believe there can be some difficulties in teaching pronunciation to pupils in primary school, but it’s only based on my own experience as a pupil. There was not any emphasis on correct pronunciation during my years in primary school. The emphasis was mainly on spelling and glossary tests. I learned most of my pronunciation watching television, movies, listening and speaking. In my mind, I always thought pronunciation is something that takes a lot time to develop. My assumption about teaching pronunciation is that it takes a lot of practice to learn to pronounce words correct, simply because there is a lot of words and many pronunciation “traps”.

It wouldn’t be far from the truth when I say that I never have seen the different symbols in the phonemic symbols, of course they have been in the glossary’s, but I never knew the correct sounds for the phonemes. I would usually guess the right pronunciation. I guess knowing the difference phonemes and allophones would make it easier to open a glossary and learn the correct spelling of the word almost instantly. There is just the challenge of teaching the pupils the system, a system that is almost a new alphabet.

When teaching pronunciation I would always start close to the pronunciation they already have. Growing up in Norway my experience tells me that American English is the accents I heard the most through television. When it comes to pronunciation, I don’t think it’s important if the students have a perfect American or English accent, but that they speak fluently and make themselves understood. I always think there will be different variations of accents in the group of pupils. Some students may have been on vacations or have relatives in English speaking countries, and that will influence their accents. I don’t think that it’s possible or advantageously to micromanage the pupils accents, because it might make the pupils lose some of their motivation if they already have an accent or they are struggling. The main emphasis pronunciation vise is to make them not sound like Petter Solberg

Pronunciation teaching and learning

by Sandra Mikalsen

 

For this assignment, I will answer to given questions about my thoughts on teaching and learning pronunciation.

First of all, do I think pronunciation is difficult to teach and learn? If so, why?

I believe that learning how to properly pronounce the words in a new language can be difficult for anyone. It requires a new way of maneuvering and adjusting our muscles in the speech organ, but also a mental readjustment over to the new language. For younger learners I think this can be especially challenging because of their underdeveloped brain and mental abilities, whilst learning and speaking a new language requires multiple tasks and processes in the brain at the same time. I also think it can be quite a challenge to teach someone else how to pronounce English words, especially if one self is insecure about his or hers pronunciation skills. It can also be more difficult to teach others if one do not know how to explain what parts of the speech organ to use to get the right sound of a word. Thus I can imagine it will be a challenge to both learn and teach someone the pronunciation of a new language.

So, what model of pronunciation would I use in teaching pronunciation, and why?

I have not yet made up my mind about whether to use American English or British English pronunciation in my teaching, even though I mostly use an American accent when I do speak English. I find it difficult to choose between those two because there are arguments for each one. My arguments for using American pronunciation is that I believe it has become the most common spoken form of English now a days mainly because of (and through) social media and television. Therefore I think both many young and older children are more exposed to American pronunciation because of the increasing use of it in cartoons, tv-shows and social media. Also I believe it is easier for Norwegian children to pronounce this form because, as I find it at least, the tone in both American and Norwegian speech are quite similar. My arguments for using British English is not as extensive though. As I learned English pronunciation during my school years I found it easier to remember both how to spell the English words and how to pronounce it after listening to a British person speaking. Also, I would argue that the British English has less and smaller variations in their accent, contrary to the American English where the variations throughout their country are greater. Thus it can be an advantage to use British English pronunciation.

Pronunciation for L2 learners

By Eirin Jensen

In this blog entry I will share my thoughts on learning and teaching pronunciation, and share my thoughts on which model of pronunciation I will use in teaching.

I never attended kindergarten, therefore I had a lot of time at home watching television and we had endless channels to choose from. At that time, there were no Norwegian channels for children, and I often ended up watching foreign cartoons. This is where my fascination for other languages began. I tried to imitate the words, the accents and intonation, although I did not understand much. I remember I was flabbergasted when I experienced that the English words were not written exactly like they were pronounced, because it made no sense to me. This I believe is one of the main reasons for why pronunciation is difficult to learn, especially for young Norwegians.

In Norwegian the words are pronounced almost exactly like they are written, something we call phonemic orthography (lydrett). Counting phonemes (sounds) in words is something the pupils learn in the first two years in school, and they also learn where the sounds are articulated. In English there are sounds that we do not use in Norwegian, which is a factor for why learning English pronunciation is difficult. I remember that I struggled with pronouncing some vowels, -th, and to separate s/z and v/w, which is typical difficulty for Norwegians learning English.

What might make teaching pronunciation difficult is the fact that it is the children themselves that have to produce the sound, and they need specific guidance of how to do so. As a teacher it is important to convey the importance of correct pronunciation, and to teach individual sounds and to work with sounds in a larger context. By increasing the awareness of the differences and similarities between L1 and L2 can attribute the learning process because the pupils can learn the sound patterns better. 

I have still not made a choice of which model of pronunciation I will use in teaching, but I have used British (RP) in my practice periods. I am a bit biased, as I myself prefer RP, but I know from experience that pupils speak an American English (AE) variant. Maybe not because it is a conscious choice, but because the Norwegian pronunciation affects the pronunciation of English which sounds more American than British.

The key element in teaching pronunciation is consistency in use of either RP or AE, but I would also give examples of what may differ between RP and AE. Although most of the English textbooks are in RP, I believe the biggest influence of language is from the media, which is dominated by AE. I need to use a model I am comfortable with, as this will affect my teaching confidence, which is why I probably will use RP.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic_orthography

Pictures: 
http://s3.thingpic.com/images/Gm/JWFKk8z1tnoyNey2m8cLqNCP.jpeg
http://www.top-ten.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Cartoon-Network-Original-LOGO.png
http://americanenglishuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/british-english-vs-american-english.jpg
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-speak-british-english.png

Pronunciation: teaching and learning

 We were given an assignment to write about pronunciation, in this case answer two questions:

1. Do you thing pronunciation is difficult to teach and learn and, if so, why?

          2. What model of pronunciation (e.g., RP (British), American, or something else) would you use in teaching pronunciation and why?

1. From personal experience, pronunciation is the most difficult part of learning a new language. In English, there are certain sounds that we don’t have in the Norwegian language that sometimes make you work to pronounce a word correctly. There are certain letters in the alphabet that we rarely use in Norwegian speech like /z/ or /w/ and when it is used we say it the same way as /s/ and /v/. I think it is difficult to both learn and teach pronunciation because of the way we’re used to say the sounds. Learning to pronounce words in a different language means learning to use your speech organs in a different way than what you are used to. I have figured out both while learning English and teaching English that repetition and sounding out words is a good way of learning pronunciation. If one of your pupils is having troubles with pronouncing a sound and they use a word with that sound, the best way to correct them is to repeat the word in a sentence so they can catch on to the right pronunciation. I think that if you find the right assignments and tasks for your pupils, learning pronunciation will be fun and educational for everyone involved.

2. I would probably use the American pronunciation model because that is what I’m most comfortable with, and most of the sounds are closer to my Norwegian accent which makes it easier to use than RP what includes sounds that we don’t normally use here. Also because a huge part of the movies, TV-shows and games are in American English making it more accessible for both pupils and teachers to use actively in class. I think it’s important that pupils learn that there is a difference between RP, American, and let’s say Australian English because it gives them a bigger view on the English speaking world. In my teaching, I would probably focus on the American English because it’s easier to both teach and learn, unless . The only problem with using an American model is that all of our textbooks and CD’s are in British English, however, that would give me a chance to use texts and sounds/CD’s that are not from any school textbooks. 

By Ann Karoline Jessen