The Complete Teacher’s Guide to English Pronunciation
Part 1: The Physical Foundation (Warm-ups)
Before teaching a single word, you must prepare the students' physical articulators (lips, tongue, jaw).
The "Mouth Gym" Routine (3 Minutes)
The Lion: Open mouth as wide as possible and stick out tongue. Hold for 3 seconds.
The Mouse: Scrunched face, pursed lips tight.
The Smile: Exaggerated wide smile (showing teeth).
The Hum: Lips vibrating together (brrrrrr sound) to wake up the vocal cords.
Part 2: Teaching Segmentals (Individual Sounds)
This involves teaching Vowels and Consonants.
Step 1: Voiced vs. Unvoiced Consonants
This is the most common error for learners.
Concept: Some sounds vibrate the vocal cords; others do not.
The Technique: "The Throat Touch."
Instruction: Have students place two fingers gently on their throat (Adam's apple).
Ask them to say "SSSS" (snake sound). Ask: Is it buzzing? (No).
Ask them to say "ZZZZ" (bee sound). Ask: Is it buzzing? (Yes).
Pairs to Practice:
/p/ (quiet) vs /b/ (vibrate)
/t/ (quiet) vs /d/ (vibrate)
/k/ (quiet) vs /g/ (vibrate)
/f/ (quiet) vs /v/ (vibrate)
Step 2: Place of Articulation (Where the tongue goes)
Use a diagram to show students where the sound is made.
Example: Teaching the "TH" sound (/θ/ and /ð/)
Instruction: "Put the tip of your tongue between your teeth. Do not bite it hard. Just touch the top teeth."
Drill: Have them blow air without making a voice sound.
Visual Check: If you cannot see their tongue, they are doing it wrong.
Step 3: Minimal Pairs (Discrimination)
You cannot pronounce what you cannot hear. Minimal pairs are words that differ by only one sound.
Activity: The "Left or Right" Game
Write two words on the board.
Left: Ship (Short /ɪ/) | Right: Sheep (Long /i:/)
Teacher says one word. Students raise their Left or Right hand.
Essential Minimal Pair Lists for Teachers:
Vowels: Sit/Seat, Pen/Pan, Hat/Heart, Full/Fool.
Consonants: Berry/Very, Tree/Three, Fan/Van, Light/Right.
Part 3: Teaching Suprasegmentals (The Music of English)
This is often more important for understanding than individual sounds.
Step 4: The Magic of the "Schwa" (/ə/)
The Schwa is the lazy "uh" sound found in unstressed syllables. It is the most common sound in English.
Example: "Banana" is not Ba-Na-Na. It is buh-NA-nuh.
Visual Aid: Write words on the board. Make the stressed syllable HUGE and the unstressed syllable tiny.
com-PU-ter
a-BOUT
DOC-tor
Step 5: Word Stress
English is not a flat language; it has peaks and valleys.
Technique: The Rubber Band Method
Give each student a rubber band (or use their hands).
Hold hands together for unstressed syllables.
Stretch the band wide for the stressed syllable.
Example: "Education" -> e-du-CA-tion (Stretch on CA).
Rules to Teach:
Nouns usually stress the first syllable (PRE-sent).
Verbs usually stress the second syllable (pre-SENT).
Step 6: Sentence Stress (Rhythm)
English is a "stress-timed" language. Content words (nouns, verbs) are heavy; function words (in, the, at) are fast.
Activity: The Telegram Game
Explain that function words are usually "eaten" or reduced.
Sentence: "I went to the store to buy some bread."
Telegram (Stressed): "WENT ... STORE ... BUY ... BREAD."
Drill: Have students clap only on the big words.
Step 7: Intonation (Pitch)
Intonation changes emotion and grammatical meaning.
Technique: The Conductor Arm
Use your arm to draw the "music" of the sentence in the air.
Rule 1: Falling Intonation (Certainty/Wh- Questions)
"Where are you going?" (Voice goes down at the end).
"It is time." (Voice goes down).
Rule 2: Rising Intonation (Uncertainty/Yes-No Questions)
"Are you ready?" (Voice goes up).
"Really?" (Voice goes up).
Part 4: Connected Speech (Advanced Flow)
Teaches students why they can't understand movies (because words blend together).
Step 8: Linking
Consonant to Vowel Linking:
When a word ends in a consonant and the next starts with a vowel, they become one word.
Written: "Stop it."
Spoken: "Sto-pit."
Drill: Write "Wake up" -> Draw a loop connecting 'k' and 'u' -> "Way-kup."
Step 9: Intrusion (The invisible /w/ and /y/)
Vowel to Vowel Linking:
When two vowels meet, English speakers insert a sound to make it smooth.
"Go /w/ out" -> Go-wout.
"I /y/ am" -> I-yam.
Part 5: Complete Lesson Plan Template
Topic: Past Tense -ed Endings (A common pronunciation struggle) Duration: 30 Minutes
1. Presentation (5 mins):
Write on board: Liked, Played, Wanted.
Explain the rule:
If the sound is unvoiced (k, p, s) -> -ed sounds like T (Liked = Likt).
If the sound is voiced (l, n, v) -> -ed sounds like D (Played = Playd).
If the sound is T or D -> -ed sounds like ID (Wanted = Want-id).
2. Recognition Practice (10 mins):
Teacher says a word.
Students hold up a card: [T], [D], or [ID].
List: Washed (T), Loved (D), Hated (ID), Kissed (T), Called (D).
3. Production / Drilling (10 mins):
Choral Drill: Class repeats together.
Back-chaining: If a sentence is hard, start at the end.
Sentence: "I worked hard."
Teacher: "...hard."
Teacher: "...worked hard."
Teacher: "I worked hard."
4. Communicative Activity (5 mins):
"Find Someone Who..."
Students ask: "Did you watch (watch-t) TV yesterday?"
They must focus on the T/D/ID ending.
Teacher’s Troubleshooting Guide: The "Fix-It" Manual
Purpose: Use this guide when a student keeps making the same pronunciation error despite repetitive drilling. Do not just say "Repeat after me." Use these diagnostic steps to find the root cause.
🛑 Checkpoint 1: The Physical Hardware
Question: Can the student physically make the sound? The Problem: The student may not know where to put their tongue, teeth, or lips. They are "blindly" trying to copy a sound without the mechanical knowledge.
Step 1: Visual Diagnosis
Ask the student to freeze their mouth while making the sound. Compare it to your own.
Lip Check: Are they rounded (O shape) or spread (smile shape)?
Jaw Check: Is the mouth open wide (like for 'Apple') or mostly closed (like for 'See')?
Tongue Check: This is the hardest to see. Ask: "Where is your tongue touching?" (Teeth? Roof of mouth? Floating?)
Step 2: The "Mechanic's" Intervention
Use a diagram to show them exactly what is happening inside the mouth.
Specific Fixes for Common Issues:
The "TH" Problem (/θ/):
Instruction: "Don't think about the sound. Just stick your tongue out and blow air."
The Prop Trick: Hold a lollipop or a clean spoon in front of their lips. Tell them their tongue must lick the spoon while they blow.
The "L" vs "R" Problem:
For L: "Tongue touches the bump behind your top teeth."
For R: "Tongue pulls back like a spoon. It touches nothing."
The "P" vs "B" (Voicing) Problem:
The Paper Trick: Hold a piece of paper in front of the mouth.
P (Unvoiced): The paper should move (puff of air).
B (Voiced): The paper should stay still (vibration stays in throat).
👂 Checkpoint 2: The Auditory Filter
Question: Can they hear the difference? The Problem: If a sound doesn't exist in their native language, their brain might filter it out. To them, "Ship" and "Sheep" sound exactly the same. You cannot pronounce what you cannot hear.
Step 1: The "Minimal Pair" Test
Do not ask them to speak yet. Test their ears.
Select a Minimal Pair (two words that differ by only the problem sound).
Example: Mouse (End with S) vs. Mouth (End with TH).
Assign a number to each: Mouse = 1, Mouth = 2.
Teacher says a word clearly. Student shows 1 or 2 fingers.
Result: If they get it wrong often, it is a hearing problem, not a speaking problem.
Step 2: Auditory Bombardment
Stop asking them to repeat. It is frustrating them.
The "Same or Different" Game:
Teacher: "Ship... Sheep." (Student says: Different).
Teacher: "Ship... Ship." (Student says: Same).
Exaggeration: Say the target sound loudly and longer than normal until their brain "registers" it as a distinct category.
🎵 Checkpoint 3: The Stress Test
Question: Are they stressing the wrong syllable? The Problem: Research shows that Word Stress is more important for intelligibility than perfect vowels. If a student says "com-PU-ter" with the wrong vowel, you understand. If they say "COM-pu-ter," you might get confused.
Step 1: The "Humming" Diagnosis
Ask the student to remove the consonants and just hum the "music" of the word.
Target: PHO-to-graph (DA-da-da).
Student Error: pho-TO-graph (da-DA-da).
If the hum is wrong, the stress is the issue.
Step 2: Physical Correction (The "Body Connect")
Use physical movement to force the stress onto the correct syllable.
The Table Knock: Knock loudly on the table only on the stressed syllable.
"EduCAtion" (Soft... Soft... KNOCK... Soft).
The Rubber Band:
Give the student a rubber band.
Tell them to stretch it wide only on the stressed syllable.
This physically connects muscle tension with vocal stress.
Step 3: The Vowel Reduction Rule
Remind them that unstressed syllables often turn into a "Schwa" (uh).
Example: "Control"
Wrong: CON-trol (O sound in first part).
Right: kuhn-TROL (First part is a tiny 'uh').
Instruction: "Make the first sound tiny and lazy. Make the second sound huge and loud."
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