Teaching Pronunciation
“The necessary practice of new language is enriched simply by adding the dimension of noticing pronunciation.” - Adrian Underhill
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Pronunciation is important to our English language learners. Improving their pronunciation gives them more confidence to speak English with others outside the classroom. Many of our language learners struggle with pronunciation. Help them enhance their pronunciation by making it fun and engaging. Below, discover activities, tips, and resources to help learners improve their pronunciation.
Tips and Resources
- Adrian Underhill shares several resources on his website. In this post, he shares great 6 tips for helping language learners pay attention to their pronunciation.
- Check out Adrian Underhill's series of videos about teaching and learning pronunciation.
- Download the Sounds Pronunciation iOS and Android app based on Adrian Underhill's Sound Foundation. Language learners study, practice and play with pronunciation.
- Linguistics for Teachers provides background knowledge about teaching phonology.
- Familiarize learners with the sounds and also how their mouths, lips, teeth, and tongue move when making certain sounds.
- Sounds of Speech is an interactive site with various sounds and videos of people making these sounds.
- Pronunciation Power is a free iOS/Android app to learn all 52 sounds with videos, animations, and more.
- English Central offers learners a great way to practice their pronunciation by watching YouTube videos then pronouncing the lines. Their pronunciation is rated by the computer and they are able to keep trying.
- YouGlish is a very cool web tool where learners use YouTube to improve their pronunciation. Learners hear and see authentic examples of English spoken by people in context.
- Forvo is a pronunciation dictionary in which learners are able to listen to different people pronounce the word.
- HowJSay is a free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation.
- BBC Voices is no longer updated, but has many authentic voices using real English.
- Text2Phonetics is a web application that transcribes small English texts into broad phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).