Ways of teaching pronunciation for efl learners

Аннотация

This article discusses the significance of learning and teaching pronunciation which is the main way of speaking in English like native speakers. The more attention is paid on pronunciation, the faster we become confident and fluent in English. Key words: pronunciation, stress, intonation, vowel shift, standardization, phonological strategy, etymological strategy, morphemic strategy, visual imagery, spelling by anology. A consideration of learners‘ pronunciation errors and how these can inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the classroom [Kelly: 2012: 11]. As an example we can consider a learner‘s any type of sentence which is mispronounced. He may say: ‗I have travelled around the world by ship‘ and may pronounce the word ship [∫ip] with long [i:], and others may understand that he has not used a means of transportation but travelled with an animal like a sheep [∫i:p]. A learner who consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand. This can be very frustrating for the learner who may have a good command of grammar and lexis but have difficulty in understanding and being understood by a native speaker. In addition, the inaccurate use of supra segmental elements, such as stress or intonation, can also cause problems [Kelly: 2012]. For example, a request made in this way: ‗Will you please SWITCH on the tape recorder?‘ We should notice how the sentence stress is on the notice switch, [swit∫] as it was a first request, one might have expected the first syllable of tape recorder to have been the most prominent, rather than swish [swi∫]. Had the teacher not known better, the utterance could have been interpreted as being a second request, the first request not having been heard, and possibly being uttered with some patience. In short, it could appear rude. The intonation pattern used in the following question caused the listener to misunderstand it. HOW LONG HAVE YOU been to Tashkent? This sentence was said to a friend while getting to know. The unexpected fall of the voice in been led to the friend not understanding her question. HOW LONG HAVE YOU ↓been to Tashkent? One would expect the voice to fall on the first syllable of Tashkent. HOW LONG HAVE YOU been to ↓Tashkent? She had to repeat the question before making herself understood. Let‘s consider this sentence: Why don‘t you come to my PARty? a) As a first ‗suggestion‘ or ‗invitation‘, we might expect the first syllable of party ['pα:\ti] to be stressed, indicated with capitals, and we might expect the voice to go dawn at the end. b) What about this variation? WHY don‘t come to my party? When spoken in this way the question is no longer a simple invitation. It suggests instead that someone has refused the invitation and that the speaker is upset by this and needs to know why it has happened. If a student uses this stress and intonation for a straightforward invitation rather than speaking as in example (a), it is possible that there will be a misunderstanding. In order to study how something works it is often useful to break it down into its constituent parts. So, let us learn pronunciation in pieces. Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight differences in how individuals articulate sounds, we can still describe 140 reasonably accurately how each sound is produced. When considering meaning, we see how using one sound rather than another can change the meaning of the word. It is this principle which gives us the total number of phonemes in a particular language [Kelly: 2012: 1] For example, the word pain has the phonemes [pein]. If we change the middle phoneme- diphthong [ei] or drop the phoneme [i] we get another word with new meaning like pen [pen]. As it is obvious, with one phoneme some type of ache changes into an educational tool. If we pronounce /p/ – [p] in a slightly different way the word does not change and we still understand that we mean the same thing. The set of phonemes consists of two categories: vowel sounds and consonant sounds. However, these do not necessarily correspond to the vowels and consonants we are familiar with in the alphabet. Vowel sounds are all voiced, and may be single, like [e], as in pet – [pet], or a combination involving a movement from one vowel sound to another, like [ei], as in gate – [ɡeit]; such combinations are known as diphthongs. An additional term used is triphthongs which describes the combination of three vowel sounds [aiә] like in tired – [taiәd], hour – [auә]. Single vowel sounds may be short, like [i], as in pit – [pit] or long, like [i:] as in beat – [bi:t]. The symbol [:] denotes a long sound. Consonant sounds may be voiced or unvoiced: [b] – [p]; [d] – [t]; [v] – [f]; [ɡ] – [k]; [z] – [s]; [ð] – [θ]; [ʤ] – [ʧ]; [ʒ] – [∫]. It is possible to identify many pairs of consonants which are essentially the same