The webinar, “Honing Your Pronunciation Teaching Skills” for ESL teachers, featured Anna Paá Bonhosha, a specialist in English language phonology and pronunciation pedagogy. The session aimed to improve ESL teachers’ ability to teach pronunciation more effectively. Anna discussed the importance of pronunciation in communication, highlighting it as the glue that holds the English language system together. She emphasized that pronunciation teaching should not be incidental but an integral part of language instruction.
Key points from the webinar included:
- Understanding Pronunciation: Pronunciation is crucial for making meaning in speech. It is the most public phase of language, directly affecting communication.
- Teachers’ Struggles with Pronunciation Teaching: Despite its importance, many teachers lack confidence in teaching pronunciation due to insufficient training or fear of mispronunciation themselves.
- Practical Tips for Teaching Pronunciation:
- Use of hands and realia (like rubber bands) to teach word stress, making it a physical and visual experience.
- Exaggerate the articulation of sounds to help students visualize and produce sounds that are not present in their first language.
- Use follow-up activities to extend pronunciation work beyond the classroom, ensuring it integrates with communication practice.
- Online resources and the communicative framework for pronunciation teaching can offer additional support and ideas.
- Expanding Pronunciation Work: Incorporating pronunciation into every lesson, as every lesson involves speaking to some extent. Activities should not only focus on controlled practice but also include communicative practice to make pronunciation teaching more effective and engaging.
The webinar underscored that pronunciation is a critical component of language learning that deserves dedicated attention and practice. Through practical tips and strategies, teachers can help students improve their pronunciation, thereby enhancing their overall communicative competence.
